THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
grass, clover, and bits of bracken and other ferns; even such hard fare 
as hazel-nuts being sometimes eaten. In autumn they constantly repair 
to the potato- and turnip -fields, feeding to some extent on the former, but 
probably the seeds of various weeds and the endless variety of insects and 
larvae to be found there are the chief attraction. By destroying enormous 
numbers of wire -worms and such like injurious grubs, they more than 
counterbalance any harm done in spring to newly -sown barley, etc. Like 
other game-birds, pheasants swallow quantities of grit to aid digestion. 
Flight , — ^Though both rapid and powerful while it lasts, the flight of 
the pheasant is seldom long sustained, and probably from one to two 
miles is the greatest distance most birds are capable of flying, even when 
assisted by high wind. Instances are, however, recorded of individuals 
accomplishing even longer flights, and crossing the Humber near Grimsby, 
a distance of about four miles ; but more often when attempting to cross 
wide lakes and rivers the birds become exhausted before reaching the 
opposite shore, and having settled on the water, accomplish the remainder 
of their journey by swimming, which comes quite naturally to them. 
In rising, pheasants make a loud whirring sound caused by the rapid 
beats of their short rounded wings, and if flushed on open ground seldom 
rise to any great height. In high cover they at first rise upwards almost 
perpendicularly, and mount until they have cleared the highest trees, 
then shape their course with rapid and almost incessant wing-beats 
for the covert they wish to reach. They continue to rise gradually until 
they have attained a sufficient elevation to enable them to surmount all 
intermediate obstacles, but no sooner have they reached the desired 
elevation, which may vary from twenty to sixty yards, or even more, 
according to the nature of the ground, than they gradually begin to drop, 
and finally glide along with outspread wings as they approach the point 
where they mean to alight. When flying, a pheasant is always either 
ascending or descending; practically speaking, it never flies horizontally, 
for the moment the zenith is reached its flight begins to decline. If there 
is any wind blowing the line of flight is sure to curve more or less to the 
right or left, and really high birds dropping and curling, as they travel 
down wind at the rate of an express train, are probably as difficult to kill 
as any game-bird. 
Breeding habits . — From the evidence of various observers residing in the 
Caucasus, published by the late Mr Macpherson,* there appears to be 
* Fur and Feather Series, The Pheasant, pp. 23, et seq. 
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