The Common Pheasant 87 
They also strike downwards with their spurs. Adult cocks in spring do not fight for 
so long as young ones, owing to their inflicting harder blows, and one or the other 
soon gives way. Although armed with not inconsiderable weapons, they seldom kill 
each other, but individual males are often very savage with the females, spurring them 
along the back until they are literally torn to pieces. Sometimes cock Pheasants kill 
their hens with a single blow of the spur at the back of the skull, but this is rare, 
except in the case of Reeves's Pheasant, who is a regular Bluebeard in this respect. 
As early as the end of March, but more commonly in April or May, according to 
latitude and weather, the female makes a slight depression in the ground, and usually 
lines it with leaves. The nest is generally under some slight protection, such as a 
thin bush that will throw a dappled shadow, so that the plumage of the bird when 
sitting may be unnoticeable. Often it is placed in thick covert and sometimes quite 
in the open, without any concealment. In this hollow she deposits from eight to 
twelve eggs of a greenish brown or greyish green tint ; size in length, if in. by i-^ in. 
in width. The period of incubation is twenty-four days. The cock may stay about 
and join the hen when she comes off the eggs during the period of incubation, and he 
may even sit on the eggs on rare occasions, and take some small part in the rearing 
of the offspring ; but this is rare, except in places where Pheasants are scarce. Where 
they are numerous, he leaves her for good as soon as she begins to sit. 
Gamekeepers as a rule are more fond of "egging" than any other occupation in 
their profession. Perhaps they never get over the schoolboy habit of the joy of nest- 
hunting. They begin to look for Pheasants' eggs about the ist of April. In pens some 
pampered female may lay an egg or two in March, but it is not usual to find a wild 
Pheasant nest with a fresh egg until the last week in April. A good keeper seldom 
searches his main coverts at this time, but wanders far afield along the roadsides 
which, if they have a southern aspect, are specially attractive to the birds. A man 
who knows his business soon learns to look, as it were, with the bird's eyes, and will 
with unerring instinct only search the spots where nests are likely to be placed. In 
a wood, hen Pheasants have an affection for pretty spots, carpeted with primroses, 
where recent tree-felling and barking has been going on, for they know that in such 
places there is always a greater abundance of insect life. If there are two hedgerows, 
the Pheasant will nearly always choose the one that gets most sun, and where banks 
shelve. 
It is not generally known how readily Pheasants will lay in nests artificially made 
up for them, especially if they are rendered attractive by one or two dummy eggs. 
This practice of constructing nests often saves the keeper much labour — in fact, far 
more than the trouble of making sham nests. The system does not apply to places 
where the birds are left to rear their own broods, but only where it may be used as 
a decoy place for the gathering of eggs. The readiness of the hen Pheasant to lay in 
any sort of cavity of a suitable size is well known. Their occasional adoption of old 
nests placed in trees has already been referred to, whilst an extraordinary instance of a 
hen Pheasant's careless habits is thus given in Country Life, May 18, 1907: — 
"A very remarkable instance of their indifference and carelessness in this regard has 
been told us by a correspondent, and it is singular in itself, as well as by way of illustration 
