INTRODUCTION. 17 



then a brief narrative of a series of important 

 events, extending over a period of about 327 

 years, and a list of generations, till we come 

 to the injunction laid upon Abraham to leave 

 his country and kindred ; he passed 'with 

 Lot unto the land of Canaan, and thence into 

 Egypt, with flocks and herds, his property ; 

 thenceforth he and his descendants led a 

 nomadic life in Syria and Arabia, feeding 

 their flocks and herds, their asses and camels. 

 Consequently, that neither this elegant bird,* 

 nor any other, excepting turtle-doves and 

 young pigeons, common in Syria, and used as 

 offerings, should be alluded to in the history 

 of the patriarchs, may be readily accounted 

 for. Subsequently it might have been known 

 to Solomon, but of this we cannot be certain. 

 Thus, then, referring to the oldest authentic 

 records which we possess, have we endeavoured 

 to deduce from scattered notices, the early 

 condition of man on the globe, the necessity 



* It is among the people who emigrated ^vestward from Asia 

 Minor, that the first notice of the pheasant occurs, and this is 

 what might be expected. The Greeks attribute its introduction 

 into Greece to Jason, a hero of tlie fabulous period of classic 

 history, who undertook what is termed the Argonautic expe- 

 dition, and procured it in Colchis, on the banks of the Phasis, 

 the present Faz, or Rion. The date of the Argonautic expe- 

 dition is placed by Newton, b.c. 937 ; by Blair, b.c. 1263. 



