Sentence:  Reynard ["i.e.", a fox], in his thieving rambles, one night the summer before last visited the pleasure-gardens in Cornbury Park, and there he found and carried off a hen pheasant while sitting on her nest. The same evening a barn-door hen, with a <WSD>nide</WSD> of pheasants also disappeared. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A nest of pheasants.