16 PHEASANTS 



improving the brilliancy of plumage, the 

 latter to augment the strength and speed 

 of flight. 



To put it mildly, any such experiments 

 are not likely to prove conducive to the 

 welfare of a shoot, the uncertain produc- 

 tion of infertile hybrids being no very 

 desirable end to attain. The Amherst 

 cock in full glory of jewelled sheen looks 

 a prince among birds, and the writer of 

 the work in question can only have been 

 dazzled by his singular beauty when he 

 set him down as of any value whatsoever 

 for the purposes of sport in England. 



The common pheasant, now so un- 

 common in this country, except as partner 

 in a joint-stock concern, that we would 

 rather call him Colchican, was introduced 

 into these islands by persons unknown, 

 Phoenician, Roman, or Saxon, before the 

 Christian era was a thousand years old. 

 Both his English and Latin names are 

 derived from the original home assigned 

 him by tradition, the one from the river 

 Phasis, the other — colchicus — from the 



