254 



THE COMMON PEEASANT. 



80 fixed on tlie clogs, that the sportsman can without difBculty ap 

 proach within gun-shot. It has been asserted that the Pheasant ima 

 gines itself out of danger whenever its head only is concealed. Sports- 

 men, however, who recount the stratagems that they have known old 

 Cock Plieasants to adopt, in thick and extensive coverts, before they 

 could be compelled to take wing, convince us ihi.t this bird is by nd 

 means deficient in the contrivances that are necessary for its own 

 preservation. 



At the commencement of cold weather, Pheasants fly after sun set 

 iuto the b'^auches of the oak-trees, and there roost during iLe i ighfc 



\ \^^' \ ''^ 





COMMON PHEASANTS. 



This they do more frequently as the winter advances, and the treei 

 lose their foliage. Tlie male birds, at these times, make a noise, 

 which they repeat three or four times successively, called by sports- 

 men cocktting. The hens, on flying up, utter one shrill whistle, and 

 Vhen are silent. Poachers avail themsL-lves of these notes, to discover 

 the roosting places; and there (in woods that are not well watched) 

 they shoot them with the greatest certainty. Where woods are 

 watched, the poacher, by means of phospliorus, lights several brimstone 

 matches; and he moment the sulphurous fumes reach the birds, 

 they drop to the ground. Or, he fastens a snare of wire to the end 

 of a long pole ; aad by means'of this, dra<2;s them, one by one, from 

 the trees. He sometimes catches these birds in nooses made of wire, 

 or twisted horsehair, or even with a briar set in the form of a noose, 

 at the verge of a wood. The birds entangle themselves in these, as 



