THE COMMON PHEASANT 
hen pheasant has a weak, sharp call, which, like the cock, she utters when 
startled. A dog or fox running through a covert will put all the birds up 
into the trees, where they remain till the intruder has gone, all the cocks 
crowing at intervals, and the hens chiming in with their feeble notes. 
In the early morning and evening, when pheasants chiefly feed, the 
wild-bred birds leave the woods and visit the neighbouring fields, and 
often remain there throughout the day if they can find suitable covert. 
On estates where birds are reared they naturally repair to the places 
where they are regularly fed, but even then, as they grow older, they 
visit the fields more and more to vary their diet with insects and plants 
not to be met with in the woods. 
In wet stormy weather they generally prefer to remain in the woods, 
and are usually to be found feeding about the edges of the covert. In 
summer and autumn they love the potato- and turnip-fields and seek out 
sunny spots where they can dust themselves in the dry sandy soil. 
In this country pheasants seem to thrive best on a light sandy soil, 
and in such situations appear to increase, but in most parts they would 
soon die out were it not for the constant introduction of fresh stock and 
artificial feeding in bad weather. 
By nature the pheasant is a wanderer, and, especially in the spring, 
will often stray miles in search of more congenial surroundings and 
change of diet, and if put down in woods not entirely suited to its taste 
will soon leave them, unless constantly checked and driven in. 
Mr Millais’ ideal wood for keeping pheasants is described by him as 
follows : “In this country, where grass- and reed-beds are absent, I should 
describe a perfect pheasant-covert as one on sandy soil, having a slight 
southern slope, and protected on the ridge by a belt of Douglas firs; the 
valley should be intersected by a stream fringed with long grass and reeds, 
and the adjoining fields in high cultivation of buckwheat, oats, wheat and 
turnips. The actual covert should consist of thickets, kept open in spaces, 
of brambles, snowberry, thorns, a few hollies, and other short berry - 
growing bushes, and the whole of the ground well covered with various 
kinds of grass that run well to seed. Oaks and firs are the best trees for 
roosting purposes, but should not be allowed to grow too densely.’’ 
As has already been remarked, pheasants in a wild state love the dense 
undergrowth and thick reed -beds bordering the rivers of the Caucasus, 
and their love for such situations, when attainable in this country, is 
always in evidence. The dense reed -beds fringing Loch Spiney, in Elgin- 
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