88 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
of this peculiarity of the pheasant. This case in point was one in which a pheasant was 
found sitting on a blackbird's nest built in a low thorn bush. At the time of the keeper 
finding the hen pheasant thus sitting, there were young blackbirds, already hatched, in the nest, 
and on the ground beneath was a single pheasant's egg. The explanation of this extra- 
ordinary spectacle may be left to the reader's ingenuity of conjecture. It has been suggested 
that the pheasant laid in the blackbird's nest, and that the proper owners ejected the 
immense intruding egg ; or, again, that while sitting in the nest the pheasant laid the egg 
over the edge. Whatever the explanation may be, the fact is singular enough, and is 
perfectly well authenticated. Instances are not wanting of pheasants laying in wood-pigeons' 
nests placed in low trees, so that the blackbird and pheasant incident is not altogether 
without parallels." 
In cold and backward springs Pheasants are often checked in their egg-laying early 
in May. This is especially the case in Scotland and the north of England. Pheasants' 
eggs do not seem to stand 15° or 18° of frost as grouse eggs will do, and any exposed 
to this low temperature are usually cracked and frozen. If wild Pheasants which have 
laid six or eight eggs are suddenly checked by a cold wave, they will lay no more, but 
commence to sit. 
Two hen Pheasants often share the same nest. As many as thirty eggs have been 
found together, and instances of partridges and Pheasants laying in the same nest are 
very common. A hen Pheasant has been known to lay her eggs in the nest of a wild- 
duck, 1 common fowl, corn-crake, capercaillie, greyhen, and grouse. Young Pheasants 
and partridges may often be seen in one common brood in September. There are 
also many records of hen Pheasants using the deserted nests of owls, hawks, wood- 
pigeons, and squirrels, and hatching their young in them. Both in this case and that of 
young wild-ducks born in similar situations, the chicks fall to the ground apparently 
without injury. In Scotland it is not rare to find hen Pheasants sitting on eggs as 
late as September. I once flushed a Pheasant from a potato field in mid-September, 
which rose off a nest containing ten eggs, and newly hatched young ones have been 
noted as late as October. 
Mr. Wormald writes : — 
"Our head-keeper, a very observant man, witnessed a curious incident this spring (1909). 
He saw a hen pheasant lay an egg in the middle of one of the pens. Instantly the bird 
turned round and began poking it about with her beak. The keeper, thinking she was 
going to suck the egg, watched her carefully. To his surprise she started rolling the egg 
along to the side of the pen, and eventually pushed it under the corrugated iron fence 
into the open field. He then picked up the egg and replaced it on the spot where the 
hen pheasant had laid the egg, when she again repeated the performance." 
On the food habits and general growth of young Pheasants little need be said, 
as all details on this subject are too well known both by sportsmen and naturalists 
to require description. 
Many birds, such as water-hens, black-headed gulls, certain owls, &c, are of a 
jealous and vengeful disposition towards the young of other species ; but it is rare to 
find any birds except wild ducks, which always kill any weaklings of their broods, 
1 A wild-duck's nest in Norfolk (May 1909) contained duck^', pheasants', and partridges' eggs. 
