and strong enough to
get their own living.

The food of this bird is extremely varied. When young it is generally
fed on ants' eggs, maggots, grits, and similar food, but when it is full
grown it is possessed of an accommodating appetite and will eat many
kinds of seeds, roots, and leaves. It will also eat beans, peas, acorns,
berries, and has even been known to eat the ivy leaf, as well as the
berry.

This Pheasant loves the ground, runs with great speed, and always
prefers to trust to its legs rather than to its wings. It is crafty, and
when alarmed it slips quickly out of sight behind a bush or through a
hedge, and then runs away with astonishing rapidity, always remaining
under cover until it reaches some spot where it deems itself safe. The
male is not domestic, passing an independent life during a part of the
year and associating with others of its own sex during the rest of the
season.

The nest is very rude, being merely a heap of leaves and grass on the
ground, with a very slight depression. The eggs are numerous, about
eleven or twelve, and olive brown in color. In total length, though they
vary considerably, the full grown male is about three feet. The female
is smaller in size than her mate, and her length a foot less.

The Japan Pheasant is not a particularly interesting bird aside from his
beauty, which is indeed brilliant, there being few of the species more
attractive.

THE FLICKER.

A great variety of names does this bird possess. It is commonly known
as the Golden Winged Woodpecker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Yellow Hammer,
and less often as High-hole or High-holer, Wake-up, etc. In suitable
localities throughout the United States and the southern parts of
Canada, the Flicker is a very common bird, and few species are more
generally known. "It is one of the most sociable of our Woodpeckers,
and is apparently always on good terms with its neighbors. It usually
arrives in April, occasionally even in March, the males preceding the
females a few days, and as soon as the latter appear one can hear their
voices in all directions."

The Flicker is an ardent wooer. It is an exceedingly interesting and
amusing sight to see a couple of males paying their addresses to a coy
and coquettish female; the apparent shyness of the suitors as they sidle
up to her and as quickly retreat again, the shy glances given as one
peeps from behind a limb watching the other--playing bo-peep--seem
very human, and "I