GALLINyE. ( 170 ) PHASIANID^. 



THE PHEASANT. 



COMMON PHEASANT, RING-NECKED PHEASANT, BOHEMIAN 

 PHEASANT. 



Phasianus colchicus. 

 %^z f ai0am 



See from the brake the whirring Pheasant springs, 

 And mounts exulting on triumphant wings, 

 Short is his joy ; he feels tlie fiery wound, 

 Flutters in blood, and, panting, beats the ground. 



Pope. 



The earliest record of the occurrence of the Pheasant in 

 Great Britain is in a bill of fare drawn up by Harold in 

 1059.^ It is first mentioned in Scottish Acts of Parlia- 

 ment in 1594, when it was "ordained, that quwhat-sum- 

 ever person or persones, at onie time heirafter, sail happen 

 to slay deir, harts, phesants, fouls, partricks, or uther 

 wild-fouU quwhat- sum -ever, ather with gun, croce-bow, 

 hand-bow, dogges, halkes, or girnes, or be uther ingine 

 quhat-sum-ever," in the King's "haill Wooddes, Porrests, 

 Parkes, Hanynges," without His Majesty's special permis- 

 sion, " their haill guddes and gear sail be escheit and 

 inbrocht to his Hienes use, and their persons punished 

 at his Hienes will." 



Although, from the above Act of Parliament, it would 

 appear that this bird was to be found in Scotland in 1594, 

 it does not seem to have been introduced into Berwick- 



1 Yarrell's British Birds, fourth edition, vol. iii. pp. 94, 95. 



