PHEASANT. 185 



plantations exist throughout the county, and there is an abundant 

 supply of the good ground-shelter he delights in : such as long grass 

 kept up by brambles and bushes, or moist ground, overgrown with 

 rushes, reeds, and osiers. Large quantities of Pheasants are 

 annually produced, and sent up to the London markets from 

 Herefordshire, and the amount might still be greater. 



With all these advantages, however, it is found here, as 

 elsewhere, that the Pheasant requires the continued care of the 

 landed proprietors, and the protection of the Game Laws, to save 

 it from extinction. In our severe winters the natural supply of food 

 becomes so limited, that without artificial feeding, the birds would get 

 so weak, as to become an easy prey to the small rapacious creatures, 

 from which they are otherwise able to protect themselves. Pheasants 

 command a high price in the market, and thus offer a great temp- 

 tation to poachers. They are very easily shot, and taken in many 

 ways ; without careful preservation, and the protection of penal 

 statutes, they would quickly dwindle away with us, as they have 

 done, so remarkably of late years, in France. Already in the 

 extensive woods in Herefordshire, which are no longer preserved, 

 such as Haugh Wood, Badnage, and the w^oods belonging to 

 Guy's Hospital, for example, wild Pheasants are extremely scarce, 

 and when found, they are but temporary wanderers from some 

 neighbouring estate, w^here their presence is protected. 



The propensity of the Pheasant to roost in larch trees, or in the 

 apple trees of an orchard, instead of in the Scotch or spruce firs 

 provided for them, sadly exposes these birds to destruction from 

 the gun of the poacher, who is thus enabled to see them with the 

 faintest glimmer of light. 



The preservation of game in a country district, is an object of 

 much higher importance to the public than it would seem to be at 

 first sight. It is the amusement afforded by game, that brings 

 the Squire's friends around him ; it is the game, which keeps 

 mansions occupied in remote districts of the country during the 

 dreary months of winter ; it is the game, which brings rich strangers 



