294 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
There can be no doubt that if the Pheasant were not arti- 
ficially reared and annually turned down in this country, it 
would soon cease to exist, for, in hard winters especially, 
the birds left for stock are largely dependent on artificial 
feeding. The chief food consists of grain, seeds, berries, and 
young shoots, varied with insects and grubs, wireworms being 
a favourite morsel. 
Pure-bred examples of P. colchiciis are now rarely to be met 
with in England, the great majority of birds being hybrids with 
the Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant (/". torqmius), which was 
subsequently iniroduced. 
Like the re.st of its kind, the Pheasant, though it roosts and 
often perches on trees, is essentially a ground bird, and a tre- 
mendous runner ; the old cocks, having learnt ivisdom from 
past experience, frequently refuse to rise at the net and face 
the guns so anxiously waiting to salute them, and may be seen 
running back among the beaters as fast as their legs can carry 
them. The whir made in rising is loud and startling, but 
when once well on the wing, the Pheasant’s flight is extremely 
swift, being performed by rapid and incessant beats of the 
rounded wing, and when coming high, down wind, the pace 
at which a good “rocketer” can travel is almost incredible. 
During the nesting-season the hen Pheasant has numerous 
enemies to contend with, the most formidable being the 
prowling Fox, who seizes her as she sits on her nest, and the 
Rooks and Crow'S, both Hooded and Carrion, who steal and 
suck her eggs. A curious instance of the enormous amount of 
damage done by Crows came under my notice in May, 1893. 
With a friend, I was passing through a Scotch fir plantation 
forming part of a large estate in the north of Scotland, where 
thousands of Pheasants are annually reared and turned dowm. 
The plantation ran along about a hundred feet above the rocky 
sea-coast, and as we advanced along the slippery path, we found 
several sucked pheasant’s eggs, evidently the work of Crows, 
nor had w'e gone far before wc came suddenly upon a whole 
family of Hooded rascals, five young and two old birds. In 
the course of about a quarter of a mile, we counted over a 
hundred empty shells which had evidently been carried to the 
path and there devoured. How many more might have been 
discovered had we searched it is impossible to say, but we saw 
