PHEASA2TT SHOOTING. 75 



sh blue exhibits. But the most distinctive mark of difference is, 

 ihat the white ring is broadest upon the sides of the neck, a cir- 

 3umstance which cannot be overlooked in considering this question 

 Df identity. The female of the ringed pheasant is Hkewise less 

 bhan the female of the common kind, both in size and in length of 

 bail. The entire question, however, of distinctive individuality, is 

 Qot by any means satisfactorily disposed of. More decided facts 

 and experiments are wanted to settle the point. Sir William 

 Jardine says, " The pheasant sometimes also cr9sses with the 

 domestic fowl. Temminck mentions this as requiring great atten- 

 tion to accomphsh ; but where poultry are kept upon the borders 

 of a wood abounding with pheasants, it occasionallj^ happens, and 

 would do so more frequently if favourable opportunities occurred ; 

 a specimen in my own possession, exhibiting all the mixed charac- 

 ters, was procured in a wild state. M. Temminck also records a 

 soHtary instance of a mule between the female pheasant and male 

 golden bird, which exhibited a curious but splendid mixture; 

 all his endeavours, however, to procure a second specimen were 

 ineffectual. The common pheasant also breeds freely with 

 the ringed bird, and the offspring is productive. _ This has been 

 considered by many as a proof that these two birds were iden- 

 tical; but in the whole of this order, and its corresponding 

 one among quadrupeds, this law has a much more extended 

 modification, and can scarcely be taken as a criterion, except m 

 very opposite instances." 



The rearing and preserving of pheasants is an important branch 

 of sporting science. The bird is not possessed of a very strong 

 domestic principle, but seems always anxious to regain and secure 

 its natural freedom, whenever it can do so. This has been the cliief 

 barrier against an almost unKmited increase of them. Could they 

 have been housed, and headed, and secured at night like our corn- 

 mon farm-poultry, they would have multipHed surprisingly ; but it 

 has been found over and over again that the young birds which 

 may have been hatched under a hen, although they apparently 

 might assume many of the habits of tameness and domesticity 

 wmch mark the common poultry of our country, yet if any one 

 approached them unawares, they would fly off to the nearest cover 

 in a state of complete wildness. 



The birds are, however, in many cases collected together in 

 considerable quantities, which go under the name of batteaux, 

 where they serve for gala days of sport to the nobility and gentry. 

 We have ourselves always looked upon these exhibitions with pain, 

 and we conceive them totally opposed in principle to the real spirit 

 of Enghsh sports. We never could comprehend a man's feelings 

 in kilSng a quantity of game under such circumstances. Sport 

 it certainly is not. To enjoy and obtain this there must be a 

 given portion of uncertainty and trouble connected with its pro- 

 secution, if a man could "kiU all the game of an extensive and 

 well-stocked preserve in an hour, there would be no sport ia the 



