THE COMMON PHEASANT. 343 



the parks of Berry and the Loire, all the woods and vine- 

 yards of the rich abbeys, were peopled with Pheasants. 

 The male bird was protected by the title of " Eoyal game 

 of the first class," and the killing of a hen was forbidden 

 under the severest penalties. During the period between 

 the reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XVI. its estimation 

 increased. During the revolution royal edicts were little 

 heeded. Pheasants, no less than their owners, forfeited 

 their dignity, which, however, rose again somewhat under 

 the empire. Waterloo, and succeeding events, brought 

 desolation to the Pheasantries as well as to the deer-parks 

 of France ; and now the royal bird, French authors tell 

 us, is likely to disappear from the country. Already, the 

 space which it occupies is reduced to a thirtieth part of 

 the national territory. The centre of this privileged 

 province is Paris ; its radius is not more than five-and- 

 twenty leagues, and is decreasing every year. Pheasants 

 have disappeared from the districts of the Garonne and 

 Rhone, while in Touraine and Berry a few only are to be 

 found in walled parks. 



If the Pheasant should ever, in this country, lose the 

 protection of the Game Laws, it will probably dwindle 

 away in like manner. Under existing circumstances, it 

 offers an inducement to poaching too tempting to be re- 

 sisted. Gamekeepers engage in more affrays with poachers 

 of Pheasants than of all the other game-birds taken col- 

 lectively; and if the offence of destroying them were 

 made less penal than it is at present, they would doubtless 

 diminish rapidly. Next to "Wood Pigeons, they are said 

 to be the most destructive of all British birds ; so that 

 farmers would gladly do their utmost to exterminate 

 them : their large size and steady onward flight combine 

 to make them an " easy shot " for the veriest tyro in 

 gunnery, while the estimation in which they are held for 

 the table would always secure for them a value in the 

 market. 



