These birds constitute a rich and wholesome nutriment. They breed in woods and fields, forming their nests, upon the ground, in places where the herbage is thick and close; and laying from twelve to fifteen eggs. These are sometimes taken away and committed to the care of poultry hens, which will hatch them, and rear the young ones as their own. Pheasants feed on corn, wild berries, beech-mast, acorns, and other similar food. They roost on the branches of trees, and, in the short days of winter, generally fly into them for this purpose about sun-set; the male birds making a noise, which they repeat three or four times successively, called "cocketing," and the hens uttering one shrill whistle. Poachers, well acquainted with these sounds, easily discover the place, and either shoot them on their perch, bring them down by burning sulphur underneath, or catch them by a snare made of brass-wire, and fixed to the end of a long pole. They are also caught by snares placed in tracks through which they are known to run, towards the adjacent fields, to feed.
If noblemen and gentlemen of extensive landed property did not preserve the breed of pheasants by forbidding them, except under certain regulations, to be destroyed, the race would soon be extinct in this country.
160. The ARGUS PHEASANT (Phasianus argus) is a splendid bird, of pale yellow colour, spotted with black, the feathers of the wings grey, with eye-like spots; and the two middle feathers of the tail very long, with similar spots.
It is a native of Chinese Tartary, the inland of Sumatra, and other parts of the East, and is about the size of a turkey.
The beauty of the plumage of the argus pheasants, but particularly of their wing feathers, and the two long feathers of the tail, has rendered them objects of considerable attention. These feathers were, some years ago, in considerable request in England as an ornament in female head-dress; but from their natural stiffness both of texture and appearance, they are at present but little regarded.
In their native country these birds are killed as food, their flesh being as much esteemed as that of the common pheasant is with us.
161. DOMESTIC POULTRY (Phasianus gallus, Fig. 35) are birds of the pheasant tribe, and found in a wild state in some of the forests of India, and the Indian islands.
There are few birds so important to mankind as these. Whilst living, they supply us with eggs; and when dead, their bodies afford us food, and their feathers are useful for making beds.
It is said that hens will sometime lay as many as two hundred eggs in twelve months. The chickens are naturally produced by the warmth of the parents sitting upon them, and generally in about three weeks after the operation has commenced. In Egypt, however, it is customary to hatch chickens in ovens by artificial heat. These ovens are sometimes so large as to contain from 40,000 to 80,000 eggs; and it has been calculated that more than 100,000,000 of chickens are annually brought to life in this manner. A similar mode of hatching them was, some years ago, introduced into France by M. de Reaumur; but the practice does not appear to have been much followed.
Some villages in Sussex are famous for poultry, which are fattened to a size and perfection not known elsewhere. They are fed on ground oats made into gruel, by a mixture with hog's grease, sugar, pot-liquor, and milk; or on ground oats, treacle, suet, &c. They are kept warm, and crammed for about a fortnight before they are sold to the higlers. The cramming is performed by rolling their food into pieces of sufficient size to be passed down their throats. When full grown these fowls weigh six or seven pounds, and are sold at four shillings and sixpence or five shillings each. What are called Darking fowls are a very large breed which are also reared in Sussex.