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.