CHAPTER VIII 



THE SACRED BIRD 



(Pbasianus colchicus) 



The pheasant in Romano-British times — The modern craze for 

 it — Destruction of bird life by keepers — A heronry de- 

 populated — An indiscriminate massacre — " Keeping an eye " 

 on the hawks — Beauty of the pheasant in autumn woods — 

 Absence of great soaring birds from English skies. 



IT was hardly necessary to add the scientific name 

 to any British species spoken of as "sacred." 

 Certainly it is not the ibis and no mistake is 

 possible seeing that England is not ancient Egypt, 

 or Hindustan, or Samoa, or any remote barbarous 

 land, where certain of the creatures are regarded 

 with a kind of religious veneration. We call our 

 familiar pheasant the sacred bird to express con- 

 demnation of the persons who devote themselves 

 with excessive zeal to pheasant-preserving for the 

 sake of sport. 



To shoot a pheasant is undoubtedly the best way 

 to kill it, and would still be the best way — certainly 

 better than wringing its neck — even if these semi- 

 domestic birds were wholly domestic, as I am per- 

 fectly sure they were in the time of the Romans who 

 first introduced them into these islands. I am sure 

 of it because this Asiatic ground-bird, which in two 



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