PHEASANT. 361 



* 



PHASIANUS COLCHICUS, Linnaeus. 

 PHEASANT. 



I know of no records relating to the Pheasant in 

 England which afford any cine to the period when that 

 noble species was first brought to this country, and 

 though probably its acclimatization does not date further 

 back than the Norman Conquest, yet it is still possible 

 that our Eoman invaders may have imported it at a 

 much earlier period with other Imperial luxuries. 

 Yarrell (Brit. Bds., ii., 2nd ed., p. 420, note) quotes 

 from Dugdale's "Monasticon Anglicanum" an extract, 

 showing that in the first year of Henry I., who 

 began to reign in 1100, the Abbot of Amesbury 

 obtained a license to kill pheasants ; and according 

 to Echard's History of England, as quoted in DanielPs 

 "Rural Sports,"* the price of a pheasant Anno 

 Dom. 1299 (being the 27th of Edward the First) was 

 fourpence, a couple of woodcocks at the same period 

 three halfpence, a mallard three halfpence, and a plover 

 one penny. If we take then the above dates, only, into 

 consideration, a residence in this country of over seven 

 hundred years would surely entitle the pheasant to 

 rank amongst our " British Birds," more particularly 

 when the propensity of the hens to " lay away," and of 

 the cocks to " foot it," on their own account, in search 

 of food, shews a natural independence of character, 

 opposed to the domesticated habits of our poultry, and 

 impatient of the supervision and protection of man. The 

 earliest notice of this bird in Norfolk occurs in the 



* Pheasants are also stated by this author to have been 

 "brought into Europe by the Argonauts 1250 years before the 

 Christian era. 

 3 A 



