516 



cf Natural Hu 



tion in life precludes them from joining in 

 the supposed diversion. However ardently 

 I may wish to protect the Pheasant in an 

 ornithological point of view, I say orni- 

 thological, for its flesh I heed not, still, I 

 am fully aware that the danger to be in- 

 curred and the odium to be borne are mighty 



game laws. How or when these laws are to 

 be amended, is an affair of the legislature. 

 The ornithologist can do 110 more than point 

 out the grievance 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 



objections. We read, that the ancients sa- | best offers that man can make to the fea- 



crifieed a cock to -<Esculapius : perhaps the 

 day is at no great distance when it will be 



coiibidered 



o gr 

 an in 



dispensable act of prudence 



for the country gentleman to offer up his 



thered race, to induce them to take up 

 their abode on his domain ; and they are 

 absolutely necessary to the successful pro- 

 pagation of the Pheasant. This bird has 



, capacious stomach, and requires much 

 lutriment ; while its timidity soon causes 



jp hi 



last hecatomb of Pheasants at the shrine of 

 public opinion. 



" To the illegal possession of the Pheasant j it to abandon those places which are dis- 

 alone may be traced the sanguinary noc- i turbed. It is fond of acorns, beech mast, 

 turnal conflicts between the poachers and the berries of the hawthorn, the seeds of 

 those who are appointed to watch for its the wild rose, and the tubers of the Jeru- 

 safety. The poacher is well aware that he j salem artichoke. As long as these, and 

 cannot procure Pheasants without the aid i the corn dropped in the harvest, can be 

 of a gun ; and he knows, at the same time, | procured, the Pheasant will do very well, 

 that the report of that gun will betray him, i In the spring it finds abundance of nou- 

 and bring up the watchers, against whom I rishment in the sprouting leaves of young 

 he would have no chance single-handed. ! clover ; but, from the commencement of the 

 Wherefore, in order that he may come off i new year till the vernal period, their wild 

 victorious, he musters an overwhelming force , food affords a very scanty supply ; and the 

 of tinkers, cobblers, masons, smiths, and la- | bird will be exposed to all the evils of the 

 bourers, armed with bludgeons, and, perhaps, ! vagrant act, unless you can contrive to keep 

 here and there a rusty gun. Taking the it at home by an artificial supply of food, 

 precaution to get well primed with beer, off , Boiled potatoes (which the Pheasant prefers 

 they go, fully bent on having every thing i much to those in the raw state) and beans 

 their own way. The Pheasants fall ; the are, perhaps, the two most nourishing things 

 watchers come up ; oaths and curses are ' that can be offered in the depth of winter, 

 poured out, and a desperate fray commences. Beans, in the end, are cheaper than all the 

 Here are furnished, work important for the j smaller kinds of grain ; because the little 

 nearest magistrate, profit to his clerk, ex- : birds, which usually swarm at the place 

 pense to the county, and practice for Mr. j where Pheasants are fed, cannot swallow 

 Ketch.* Let it be also observed, that the j them ; and, if you conceal the beans under 

 unlawful capture of the Hare and the Par- j yew or holly bushes, or under the lower 

 tridge (which are really ferce naturd) does i branches of the spruce fir tree, they will be 

 not produce similar work of mischief. These out of the way of the rooks and ring-doves, 

 are taken with nets and snares. The fewer ; About two roods of the thousand-headed 

 poachers employed, the more certain is their ' cabbage are a most valuable acquisition to 

 success. A number of men would only do the Pheasant preserve. You sow a few 

 harm, and mar the plan of capture. So I ounces of seed in April, and transplant the 

 silently is tLis mode of poaching carried on, ! young plants, two feet asunder, in the month 

 that the owner of the soil is not aware of the i of June. By the time that the harvest is all 

 loss he is about to sustain in the plunder of in, these cabbages will afford a most excel- 

 his game. When his Hares and Partridges ; lent aliment to the Pheasants, and are par- 



e actually on their way to the dealer's ! ticularly serviceable when the ground is 



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 sometimes beset ; guns are fired 

 close to the windows ; females are frightened 

 into hysterics ; and, if the owner sallies 

 forth to meet the marauders, his reception 

 is often the most untoward and disagreeable 

 that can well be imagined. 



" Pheasants would certainly be delightful 

 ornaments to the lawn of the country gentle-''' 

 man, 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 ven- 

 tures out to disturb the sport of those who 

 have assembled to destroy them. There 

 must be something radically wrong in the 



* This was written before the abrogation of 

 capital punishment for this offence and others 

 much more heinous became the law of the land. 



deeply covered with snow. I often think 

 that Pheasants are unintentionally destroyed 

 by farmers during the autumnal seed-time. 

 They have a custom of steeping the wheat 

 in arsenic water. This must be injurious 

 to birds which pick up the corn remaining 

 on the surface of the mould. I sometimes 

 find Pheasants, at this period, dead in the 

 plantations, and now and then take them 

 up, weak and languid, and quite unable to 

 fly." 



We must now briefly describe some of the 

 rarer si>ecies, viz. the GOLDEN PHEASANT 

 (Phasianus pictus), a native of China, re- 

 markable for the beauty of its plumage : the 

 prevailing colours are red, yellow, and blue, 

 and it is distinguished by a crest upon the 

 head, which can be raised at pleasure. The 

 iris, bill, and legs are yellow. The tail is 

 longer and more richly tinted than that of 

 the European species ; and from above it 

 arise a number of long, straight feathers, of 

 a scarlet hue, mixed with yellow. Cuvier is 



