THE PHEASANT. 103 
sustain in the plunder of his game. When his 
hares and partridges are actually on their way to 
the dealer’s shop, he, “ good easy man,’ may fancy 
that they are merely on a visit to his neighbour’s 
manor, or that the fox and the polecat may have 
made free with them. Not so with regard to the 
capture of the pheasant. The mansion is some- 
times beset ; guns are fired close to the windows; 
females are frightened into hysterics; and, if the 
owner sallies forth to repel the marauders, his re- 
ception is often the most untoward and disagreeable 
that can well be imagined. 
Having now treated of the pheasant, and the 
mode which is adopted for its destruction, I will 
draw upon the reader’s time a little longer, by pro- 
posing a plan for its propagation and protection. 
Pheasants would certainly be delightful orna- 
ments to the lawn of the country gentleman, were 
it not for the annoying idea that, any night, from 
November to May, he runs the risk of getting a 
broken head, if he ventures out to disturb the sport 
of those who have assembled to destroy them, 
There must be something radically wrong in the 
game laws. How or when those laws are to be 
amended, is an affair of the legislature. The orni- 
thologist can do no more than point out the griev- 
ance which they inflict upon society, and hope that 
there will soon be a change in them for the better, 
But to the point. Food and a quiet retreat are 
the two best offers that man can make to the fea- 
thered race, to induce them to take up their abode 
on his domain; and they are absolutely necessary 
H 4 
