BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



on authentic evidence, is that the bird was 

 officially recognised in the reign of Harold, 

 and that it had already come under the aegis 

 of the game laws in that of Henry I, during 

 the first year of which the Abbot of Amesbury 

 held a licence to kill it, though how he con- 

 trived this without a gun is not set forth in 

 detail. Probably it was first treed with the 

 aid of dogs and then shot with bow and arrow. 

 The original pheasant brought over by the 

 Romans, or by whomsoever may have been 

 responsible for its naturalisation on English 

 soil, was a dark-coloured bird and not the 

 type more familiar nowadays since its 

 frequent crosses with other species from the 

 Far East, as well as with several ornamental 

 types of yet more recent introduction. 



In tabooing the standpoint of sport, 

 wherever possible, from these chapters, 

 occasional reference, where it overlaps the 

 interests of the field-naturalist, is inevitable. 

 Thus there are two matters in which both 

 classes are equally concerned when con- 

 sidering the pheasant. The first is the real 

 or alleged incompatibility of pheasants and 

 foxes in the same wood. The question of 

 12 



