86 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
and that such polygamous habits as it displays in our islands are due to force of 
circumstance, since there is a plurality of females at the end of the shooting season. 
This may be more or less true, but it is nevertheless a fact that in parts of Scotland, 
Ireland, and Wales, where no Pheasants are artificially reared, and where both hens 
and cocks are shot until the middle of the season, most of the cock Pheasants are 
polygamous. I should think, too, that if we knew a little more about P. colchicus in 
its purely wild state, we would find that it is polygamous there as it is here, especially 
so after a great "hen" year, when this sex predominates. At any rate, the evidence of 
the polygamous or monogamous nature is at present somewhat negative, but that cock 
Pheasants are often monogamous as well as polygamous in these islands there is no 
doubt, as well as the fact that on occasion they are attentive in watching over the 
sitting hen, and even taking part in the duties of incubation. 1 
There are now so many instances of cock Pheasants taking their turn on the eggs 
when the hen is absent or feeding that I need not particularise them. Dogs and men 
have been attacked by cock Pheasants at such times, and Mr. Hugh Wormald tells 
me he has at the present moment a cock which will not allow him to approach the 
hen when she is sitting. Cock Pheasants, too, have often been seen attending broods 
of young birds, so that on the whole man has something to do with the indifferent 
marital relations of the species. J. B. D., writing in the Field (June 20, 1908), records 
curious behaviour on the part of a cock Pheasant, who persistently entered some coops 
where domestic hens were sitting on Pheasants' eggs and bullied them off the eggs. 
About the end of March the cock Pheasant begins to display before the wife or 
wives he has gathered. 2 The show is a very beautiful one, the cock exhibiting in 
the most perfect manner the full glories of his brilliant plumage. At this season the 
usual walk is seen to be more reserved and dignified, and the whole of the feathers are 
held out so as to give the bird a puffed appearance ; the brilliant scarlet patch of skin 
round the eye is inflated and lowered beyond the angle of the jaw, and the purple ears 
erected and inclined outwards. 3 The bone-coloured bill is of a brighter hue, and the 
eye, especially in the Mongolian sub-species, very brilliant. Thus he proceeds, 4 until 
the moment of show. The wing nearest the female is then lowered and extended, the 
scapulars dropped a little ; the tail is also spread and turned over towards her, so that 
she may see its full beauty. The feathers of the rump are also opened as far as 
possible; the neck is lowered and curved, and the head slightly turned to display the 
extended eye ornaments. If the female walks coquettishly away, or picks about with 
apparent indifference, he is not annoyed, but walks ahead to stop her and displays the 
other side of his person. 
Young cocks begin to fight in September, and when full grown in October and 
November, may often be observed battling for an hour at a time in some open spot. 
They crouch and fly up suddenly, each endeavouring to strike the other on the head. 
1 See Field, July 5 and 19, 1892, also many other instances in Tegetmeier's Pheasants, Zoologist, &c. 
2 In a wild state we seldom see more than three hens with a cock. Breeders find that from four to six hens are the best 
number to place with a male. 
8 Mr. Wormald has a male which constantly carries the ear-tufts at right angles to the head at this season. 
1 "Proceeds" is perhaps the correct word. It is magnificent and dignified. A policeman never walks or "runs," according 
to his own account ; he always proceeds to the spot. 
