310 Habits of the Pheasant. 



pheasant in an ornithological point of view, — I say orni- 

 thological, for its flesh I heed not, — still, I am fully aware 

 that the danger to be incurred, and the odium to be borne, 

 are mighty objections. We read, that the ancients sacrificed 

 a cock to JEsculapius : perhaps the day is at no great dis- 

 tance, when it will be considered an indispensable act of 

 prudence, for the country gentleman to offer up his last heca- 

 tomb of pheasants at the shrine of public opinion. 



The more we look into the habits of the pheasant, the 

 more we must be persuaded that much more attention 

 ought to be paid to it than is generally paid to other kinds 

 of game. The never-failing morning and evening notice 

 which it gives of its place of retreat, together with its supe- 

 rior size, cause it to be soon detected, and easily killed. The 

 tax, too, which government has put upon it, enhances its 

 value as an indispensable delicacy at the tables of those who 

 give good cheer. In fact, few are the autumnal and winter 

 dinners of the wealthy where a roasted pheasant does not 

 grace the second course. The fowling-piece of the nocturnal 

 poacher is the most fatal weapon used for its destruction. 

 The report of a gun, or a clap of thunder during the night, 

 will often cause the pheasant to begin to crow, as I have 

 already stated ; and this greatly endangers their safety. When 

 once they are frightened from their roost, they never perch again 

 during the remainder of the night ; but take refuge among the 

 grass, and underneath the hedges, where they fall an easy 

 prey to the cat, the fox, and the stoat. A poacher armed 

 with a gun finds a cloudy night fully as good for slaughter 

 as one in which the moon shines ; and, if larch trees grow in 

 the wood, to these he resorts ; knowing, by experience, that 

 the pheasant prefers this kind of tree to any other. The 

 larch suits pheasants admirably, on account of its branches 

 growing nearly at right angles from the stem. This renders 

 the sitting position of the birds very easy. I consider the 

 smoking of pheasants, while they are roosting in the tree, 

 as a mere idle story. I myself ought to be a pretty good 

 hand at poaching ; still, I am obliged to confess that I have 

 never been successful, in one single instance, in the many 

 attempts I have made to bring down the pheasant from his 

 roost by the application of a smoking apparatus. Indeed, 

 when we reflect that the mouth of the bird is always shut 

 during sleep, and that both it and the nostrils are buried in 

 the dorsal feathers, we are at a loss to conceive how the 

 smoke can enter them, and cause the bird to fall in stupe- 

 faction. If smoking were a successful method, depend upon 

 it the poachers would never be such noodles as to use a 



