THE BUSTARD. 285 



sant, the predominant colour of which is a beautiful 

 green, are all natives of China. 



There is another beautiful bird, a native of South 

 America, which some naturalists class with the phea- 

 sant. It is called the trumpeter. The individuals of 

 this species vary in colour. It is very familiar, and 

 will follow a person about like a spaniel. It feeds on 

 bread, fish, or flesh, and is reckoned as delicious food 

 as the common pheasant. 



The curassow which comprehends five or six va- 

 rieties, bears a strong resemblance to the pheasant 

 althongh most naturalists agree in considering it a 

 distinct genus. In Peru and Mexico this kind is 

 very numerous both in a wild and domestic state. 



The pheasant was originally brought into Europe 

 from the banks of the Phasis, a river of Colchis, in 

 Asia Minor, and thence has derived ks name. 

 Though removed from its natal soil, it thrives well in 

 our climate, where, still retaining its attachment to 

 freedom, it lives wild in our forests and parks, of 

 which it constitutes an enlivening ornament. It la- 

 bours however, under one disadvantage, which pre- 

 vents its multiplication in such a degree as might 

 otherwise be expected. The slowness of its rising, 

 from the ground, caused in a great measure by the 

 length of its tail, renders it extremely liable to be de- 

 stroyed by the weazle, the foumart, and other animals 

 of th'at kind. 



It the increase of our Pheasants were not pre- 

 vented by their depredations, it might have been ex- 

 pected, from the numbers introduced into some parts 

 of the country, that our forests would have glittered 

 with the dazzling brilliancy of their plumage. 



THE BUSTARD 



is the largest land bird that is a native of Creat Bri- 

 tain, or even of Europe. Its weight varies consider- 

 ably : some have been found of not more than ten 

 pounds, others weigh from twenty to thirty. This 

 Kpccies appears t> have been pretty generally dif- 

 fused for according to Plutarch it is found in Lybia, 

 in the environs of Alexandria, in Syria, in Greece, 



