PHEASANTS AND WOODCOCK 



Both the Pheasant and the Woodcock may be 

 accounted true birds of the woodlands. In some 

 respects the history of the former is unique. To 

 begin with, the Pheasant is the only feathered 

 alien introduced into Great Britain whose acclim- 

 atization can be regarded as an unmixed success. 

 Many foreign birds have been brought here from 

 time to time — the American Turkey and the French 

 Red-legged Partridge amongst others — but they 

 have either failed to take root or have become some- 

 thing of a nuisance. The Pheasant alone is a 

 prosperous as well as a highly welcome guest. 



]\Iythological tradition attributes to Jason and his 

 Argonauts the introduction of the bird from the 

 banks of the River Phasis in Colchis. In any case 

 the fable has given rise to both the generic and the 

 specific names of the Pheasant — Phasianns col- 

 cliicus — and it is unquestionably true that his 

 original habitat is the marshy forests on the borders 

 of the Black Sea, into which the waters of the 

 classic Phasis eventually flow. 



The exact date of the Pheasant's first appearance 

 on English soil is lost in the mists of antiquity. 

 As in the case of so many other birds, the earliest 

 record is contained in a bill of fare. In a.d. 1059 

 a certain worthy canon compiled in choice Latin 



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