THE HORNED PHFASANT. 255 



they run into tlie adjacent fields to feed. Foxes destroy great num 

 bers of Pheasants. 



The males begin to crow during the first week in March ; and the 

 noise can be heard at a considerable distance. They occasionally 

 come into farm-yards in the vicinity of coverts where they abound, 

 and sometimes produce a cross breed with the common fowls. 



It has been contended that Pheasants are so shy, as not to be 

 tamed without great difficulty. Where, however, their natural fear 

 of man has been counteracted, from their having been bred under 

 his protection ; and where he has almost constantly appeared be- 

 fore their eyes in their coverts, they will come to feed immediately 

 on hearing the keeper's whistle. They will follow the keeper in 

 flocks; and scarcely allow the peas to run from his bag into troughs 

 placed for the purpose, before they begin to eat. Those that cannot 

 find room at one trough, follow him with the same familiarity to 

 others 



Pheasants are found in most parts of England, but are by no means 

 plentiful in the north ; and they are seldom seen in Scotland. Wood 

 and corn lands seem necessary to their existence. Were it not for the 

 exertions of gentlemen of property, in preserving these birds in their 

 woods from the attacks of poachers and sportsmen, the breed, in a few 

 years, would be extinct. The demand for Pheasants at the tables of 

 the luxurious, and the easy mark they offer to the sportsman, particu- 

 larly since the art o^ shooting flying has been generally practised, would 

 soon complete their destruction. Mr. Stackhouse, of Pendarvis in 

 Cornwall, informed me, that forty years ago, he recollects hearing old 

 people say, that in their youth, and in the generation before them, 

 Pheasants were very plentiful in that county ; but the race is now 

 extinct. 



The general weight of male Pheasants is from two pounds and a 

 hall^ to three pounds and a quarter. That of the hens is usually about 

 ten ounces less. 



The female birds have sometimes been known to assume the plu- 

 mage of the male. But with Pheasants in a state of confinement, those 

 that take this new plumage always become barren, and are spurned 

 and bufteted by the rest. From what took place in a hen Pheasant, 

 belonging to a lady, a friend of Sir Joseph Banks, it would seem prob- 

 able that this change arises from some alteration of temperament at a 

 late period of the animal's life This lady had paid particular attention 

 to the breeding of Pheasants. One of the hens, after having produced 

 several broods, moulted, and the succeeding feathers were exactly like 

 those of a cock. This animal, however never afterward had young- 



THE HORXED PHEASANT. 



This beautiful specimen of the genus Pheasant is a native of China 

 and Thibet. It is as rare as it is beautiful. But one has as yet 

 reached Europe. In size it is between a Turkey and common fowL 



