308 PHEASANTS AND PEACOCKS. 



young birds will follow the hen, and perch with her, and 

 in a few days will shift for themselves. If regularly fed, 

 they will remain near any particular spot, and frequent 

 a lawn or pleasure-ground as familiarly, and almost as 

 fearlessly ? as common poultry. An ingenious feeding- 

 machine has been made, by which the grain may not 

 only be kept dry, but reserved for the sole use of the 

 Pheasants, or, at least, the larger sort of fowls ; as the 

 lid, covering a trough containing the seed, opens and 

 shuts by the weight of the Pheasant hopping on or off a 

 perch connected with a crank. 



Pheasants have been considered, and with some reason, 

 foolish birds, easily taken by every variety of snare; but, 

 together with the Peacocks, they were, nevertheless, pro- 

 bably on account of their beauty, not only highly es- 

 teemed in ancient times, but viewed with a sort of super- 

 stitious respect; so much so, that by the heathen Romans, 

 those who first served them up at entertainments, were 

 deemed guilty of a sort of impiety to their idol-gods; 

 and even when they were afterwards introduced as food, 

 they were never used, even by the emperors, except on 

 the most solemn occasions. In after-times, the Chris- 

 tians, who too often adopted the customs of their hea- 

 thenish predecessors, paid an almost equal respect to 

 these birds. Thus we find so serious a writer as St. 

 Jerome, giving directions for boiling a Pheasant, so that 

 the form of the bird might be completely preserved. 

 From the table, Pheasants and Peacocks became most 

 fashionable and honoured additions to the toilet; histo- 

 rians telling us, that the most splendid present one of 

 the Popes sent to Pepin, one of the earliest kings of 

 France, was a mantle, embroidered with the feathers of 

 the latter; and the richest furniture in the apartments 

 of the nobles in the middle ages, was painted or inlaid 

 in such a manner as to represent a Peacock's tail, spread 

 out and studded with eyes. 



At table, they were never introduced, except on the 

 most important and magnificent occasions; and he who 



