The Pheasant 



CHAPTER VIII 



The Sacred Bird 



Phasianus Colchicus 



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 venera- 

 tion. We call our familiar pheasant the sacred bird 

 to express condemnation of the persons who devote 



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