74 • SHOOTING. 



river m Colcliis, in Asia Minor. The Greeks, in the ascent of the 

 stream, were attracted by their beauty, and the bird being so easily 

 domesticated, a valuable addition to the luKury of themselves ana 

 Romans was soon secured, and rapidly extended itself over the 

 southern coimtries of Europe. They appeared at the expensive and 

 superabundant repasts of the ancients, and, for a time, bore the 

 palm for novelty ; and Heliogabalus, in his ostentatious displays, is 

 said to have fed the lions of his menagerie with them. The phea- 

 sant may be said to have been origiaally restricted to the Asiatic 

 continent, extending over the greater part of it, and reaching to 

 China, and the confines of Tartary. 



The pheasant, though not originally belonging to the American 

 contiaent, has been introduced to it ; and is now pretty numerous 

 in some of the British possessions, and in the United States. They 

 are, however, not very well adapted for moving from place to place, 

 on account of the shortness of their wings. _ On this account, we 

 are told, they are kept in complete imprisonment ia the Isolo 

 Madre, in the Lago Maggiore, at Turin, as they are not able to 

 make their flight over the lake. When they make the attempt 

 they generally perish. It is stated by Sonnini, and other travellers, 

 that the pheasants of some of the northern islands of the Archi- 

 pelago, and which come thither from the woods of Thessalia, are 

 larger and handsomer than those of other countries ; and that it is a ^ 

 great source of amusement among the Turks to let birds of prey, 

 which they carry in their hands, fly at them. When the pheasant 

 takes its flight,_ the bird of prey, which they let loose, hoveriag 

 above, compels it to perch on some tree ; he then places himseK on i 

 another branch, over its head, and keeps it in such terror, that , 

 it suffers itself to be approached, and easily taken alive. This • 

 fact, it is remarked, sufficiently developes the mystery of fascina- ■ 

 tion. 



There are six varieties of the pheasant, exclusive of the common; ; 

 namely, the gold, the silver, the ring-necks, the white, the pied, , 

 and the Bohemian. 



That the ring-necked pheasant and the common pheasant inter- 

 breed has been denied, or at least doubted, by several naturalists of I 

 note. The ringed pheasant, it is said, chiefly inhabits the forests of I 

 China, where the common sjpecies are likewise very abundant ; but 

 there is no issue that would indicate anything like an mtermin^^Ung , 

 of the two kinds. The eggs of the ringed bird are of a pale bluish ■< 

 colour, and jnarked with small blotches of a deeper tint; while 

 those of the common pheasant are of an olive white, and are desti- 

 tute of any spots. In a wild state the ringed species are uniformly < 

 less in size than the common bird, both in length of body and in . 

 tail. The head of the former is of a whitisn fawn colour, tinted : 

 with bluish green ; and above each eye there are two white lines, , 

 which constitute a sort of eyebrow. The marking in the back of the 

 ringed kind is different and smaller ; and the rump feathers dis- 

 play the same peculiar tints which the mixture of fawn and green- 



