282 PHASIANID.E. 



be open at bottom, and from thence run one dry ditcli or 

 hedgerow after another for half a mile to the next covert ; 

 but a hen Pheasant seems to trust to her broAvn colour to 

 escape detection, and squatting in any bit of long grass that 

 is near her, often surprises and startles the young shooter, 

 not a little, by bouncing up with a rattling noise close at his 

 feet, and the poor frightened bird is frequently indebted to 

 the sensation thus created for a clear escape. The brown 

 earth-like colour of the plumage of the females of several spe- 

 cies of Pheasants seems to be a bountiful provision, not only 

 for their individual safety, but in a degree for the preservation 

 of the whole race. Mr. Jesse, in his Gleanings, has truly 

 observed that, " while we admire the dazzling plumage of a 

 male bird, we may wonder why the female appears so infinite- 

 ly below him in the scale of beauty. Is it because she is to 

 be considered as more degraded, or as an inferior being ? 

 When we see the male expanding his rich and varied plumage 

 in the sunbeams, let us not forget that on the female devolves 

 all the offices of love and affection. She hatches, feeds, and 

 protects, at the risk of her life, her helpless young ones ; and 

 what we may consider as lowering her in the scale of creation, 

 is, on the contrary, an act of the greatest kindness and consi- 

 deration. Her Avant of beauty is her chief protection, and 

 her very humility saves her from a thousand perils." It is on 

 this account that some gamekeepers dislike having white or 

 pied Pheasants on their ground. Any prowling boy can find 

 a hen Pheasant on her nest, if she happens to have any white 

 feathers in her plumage. 



Amonor the various communications for which I am in- 

 debted to the kindness of the Rev. Richard Lubbock of Nor- 

 folk, are some extracts from the Household Book and Privy 

 Purse accounts of the Lestranges of Hunstanton, from A.D. 

 "1519 to 1578, communicated to the Society of Antiquaries 

 by D. Gurney, Esq. in 1834. Such of these extracts as 



