PHEASANTS AND BUSTARDS. 305 



tard, endeavoured to secure it, in which, after a long 

 and severe struggle, he succeeded, and carried it to the 

 house of the person to whom he was going, where it was 

 confined. During the first week it was not known to 

 eat anything ; but, finally, it became very tame, and 

 would take food from the hands of those accustomed to 

 feed it, though it still continued shy in the presence of 

 strangers. From the time of its capture in June, till 

 August, when it was sold to a nobleman for thirty-one 

 guineas, it was never seen to drink ; indeed, after the 

 first three weeks, water was never given to it. A second 

 instance of one of these birds attacking a human being 

 occurred about a fortnight afterwards, near the same 

 spot, and under circumstances very similar. The horse, 

 however, took fright, became unmanageable at so unex- 

 pected an attack, and ran away with his rider. 



In the above cases, we find only an increase of that 

 spirit with which Nature has endowed them. But the 

 clergyman who possessed the pugnacious Cock just men- 

 tioned, had a Hen, which so far overcame its natural fear 

 of water, as to be in the constant habit of making a short 

 -cut from the church-yard (into which she, with the rest 

 of the poultry, occasionally wandered) to the barn-yard, 

 by regularly swimming across a pool, which was situated 

 between it and the church -yard. The distance was 

 about thirty yards, and the part of the pool where she 

 crossed was so near the end of it, that the other fowls 

 which came round arrived before her. This Hen had 

 another uncommon propensity, that of catching mice, a 

 practice she pursued with the greatest eagerness, and 

 when caught, she was seen to run off with them ; whe- 

 ther she ate them, or not, was never known with cer- 

 tainty ; at all events, she did not do so invariably, as 

 they were sometimes found dead up and down the yard. 



It has been often doubted whether the Pheasant will 

 breed with the common Hen ; but the following ac- 

 count, from a highly respectable authority*, seems to 



* Quarterly Journal of dgricitlliire, No. V. 



X 



