166 On the Ornithology of Wilts {^Phdsianidce]. 



ance to its plaintive Jcurrie, kurrie, kurrie, that is 'Lord, Lord, 

 Lord,' Since that time it has never more been joyful, but has con- 

 stantly winged its flight around the world, repeating its sorrowful 

 cry." 1 



PHASIANID^ (The Pheasants). 



This family will not occupy us long, inasmuch as it contains but 

 one species known in England, and that one almost in a state of 

 semi-domestication ; and consequently its habits and economy 

 thoroughly well-known : for I pass over the Turkey of American 

 origin, and the domestic fowl and Peacock of Indian birth, as 

 having no claim to a place in the fauna of Wiltshire. I will but 

 call attention, in passing, to the difference in plumage which the 

 sexes of this family exhibit : to their polygamous habits ; to the 

 precocious nature of the young birds, which are no sooner hatched 

 from the shell than they can follow their parents and feed them- 

 selves ; to their custom of dusting their feathers in any dry heap 

 they can find, and to the horny, conical and sharp spur with which 

 the tarsus of male birds of this family is furnished. They derive 

 their name, like other descendants of ancient and honourable 

 lineage, from their ancestral seat on the banks of the Phasis in 

 Asia Minor, whence Jason is said to have imported them into 

 Europe. 



"Pheasant." (Phasianus Colchicus.) Alone of this family is 

 entitled to demand admission into the ranks of British birds : for 

 though originally of foreign extraction, as I have shown, this 

 handsome species has not only become in course of time thoroughly 

 acclimatized, and capable of enduring our most severe winters, but 

 completely naturalized, and able, when left to itself, to thrive and 

 multiply in a wild state in our woods. Though grain and seeds 

 form its food in winter, it feeds largely on insects and roots during 

 the remainder of the year ; but it is seldom considered in how 

 great a degree it compensates for the partial injury it causes by 

 the undoubted benefit it confers in thus ridding the land of noxious 



1 Lloyd's Scandinavian Adventiires, vol. ii., p. 361. 



