98 THE PHEASANT. 
habits of this bird, we are apt to doubt of the pro- 
priety of placing it under the denomination of fere 
natura ; and I am one of those who think that it 
would be a better plan to put it on the same footing 
with the barn-door fowl, by making it private pro- 
perty ; that is, by considering it the property of the 
person in whose field or wood it may be found. 
The pheasant is a more than half-reclaimed bird. 
While the hare and the partridge wander in wildest 
freedom through the land, heedless of the fostering 
care of man; the bird in question will come to us, 
at all hours of the day, to be fed. It will even some- 
times associate with the poultry on the farm; and, 
where it is not disturbed, it will roost in trees, close 
to our habitations, 
Its produce with the barn-door fowl is unprolific, 
and seems to have nothing to recommend it to our 
notice on the score of brilliancy of plumage, or of 
fineness of shape. 
The pheasant crows at all seasons, on retiring to 
roost. It repeats the call, often during the night, 
and again at early dawn; and frequently in the day- 
time, on the appearance of an enemy, or at the re- 
port of a gun, or during a thunder storm. I am of 
opinion that it does not pair. The female lays from 
seven to eighteen eggs; but in general the nest 
contains about twelve. 
Notwithstanding the proximity of the pheasant 
to the nature of the barn-door fowl, still it has that 
within it which baffles every attempt on our part to 
render its domestication complete. What I allude 
to Is, a mogt singular innate timidity, which never 
