48 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



During these early days, however, the pheasant must have been a 

 comparatively rare bird, and hence the care expended on its preserva- 

 tion. Its capture was possible only by snares, nets, the cross-bow, and 

 by hawking. The introduction of firearms gradually, and materially, 

 changed the conditions of existence, and, incidentally, has done much 

 to rob us of many of our finest and most interesting birds. Greater 

 facilities of killing has slowly bred what it is no exaggeration to call 

 a lust for killing, which overrides all other considerations. To ensure 

 huge "bags" the noble falcons, eagles, buzzards, hawks, owls, jays, 

 and magpies have been, and are, ruthlessly slaughtered branded with 

 the odious name of " vermin." The generous instinct of the " sports- 

 man" has become poisoned by the overmastering desire to make 

 record bags. Hundreds of thousands of birds are now reared annually, 

 under artificial conditions hatched under domestic hens, and in 

 incubators to be turned adrift at a fitting time to make "sport." 

 Most emphatically we agree with the protection of this most valuable 

 bird, but we cannot suppress a regret, that at times becomes indignant, 

 that it should have been considered necessary to press protection to 

 such inordinate lengths. 



There is a general impression abroad that the pheasant of the 

 English coverts of to-day is a semi-domesticated bird, that the killing 

 thereof is much on a par with shooting barn-door fowls ! This is not 

 the experience of those who rear and shoot them. In spite of the 

 purple period of its early life the pheasant remains unspoiled ; 

 retaining all the ancestral love of seclusion, and dislike of the haunts 

 and ways of men ; wherein it agrees with its congeners the Grouse 

 and Partridges. 



In the selection of its haunts, as in its physical characters, it 

 differs conspicuously both from the Grouse on the one hand and the 

 Partridges on the other. As regards its physical characters, one of its 

 most striking peculiarities, as compared with the types just mentioned, 

 is afforded by the covering and armature of the feet, or, as many 

 would say with less accuracy, of the " legs." In the first place these, 



