THE PHEASANT 



AS birds are to be considered throughout 

 these pages from any standpoint but 

 that of sport, much that is of interest in 

 connection with a bird essentially the 

 sportsman's must necessarily be omitted. At 

 the same time, although this gorgeous 

 creature, the chief attraction of social gather- 

 ings throughout the whiter months, appeals 

 chiefly to the men who shoot and eat it, it is 

 not uninteresting to the naturalist with op- 

 portunities for studying its habits under 

 conditions more favourable than those en- 

 countered when in pursuit of it with a gun. 



In the first place, with the probable ex- 

 ception of the swan, of which something is 

 said on a later page, the pheasant stands 

 alone among the birds of our woodlands in 

 its personal interest for the historian. It is 

 not, in fact, a British bird, save by accli- 

 matisation, at all, and is generally regarded 

 as a legacy of the Romans. The time and 

 manner of its introduction into Britain are, 

 it is true, veiled in obscurity. What we know, 

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