210 PHEASANT. 



naturalists than any thing I can insert of my own. 

 I shall, therefore, take the liberty of subjoining his 

 communication : 



" In the second edition of the ' Instructions to Young Sports- 

 men' by Major Hawker, the author, in speaking of the different 

 kinds of pheasants, says " 



Here he quotes from my second edition at con- 

 siderable length. He then continues 



" The ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen' are evidently the 

 work of a sportsman, who is a master of the subject on which he 

 writes, and under a very moderate title contain a great deal of 

 original and interesting information j information new, not only 

 to the young sportsman, but capable of instructing the old. It 

 is with great deference, therefore, that the writer of the following 

 observations ventures to give a different opinion on the cause of 

 white pheasants, or at least to submit that there should be assigned 

 another cause for their production than that of their being mule 

 birds, between the fowl and hen pheasant. He will speak of 

 these two subjects in their order : and, 



(( First, on the probable cause of white pheasants. 



" On reading the ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen' the 

 writer of the following remarks was struck with the observation, 

 that ' the common pheasants were often seen among the white 

 barn door fowls / and recollecting the story of Jacob's contract 

 with Laban, in the 30th chapter of Genesis, he began to think 

 white pheasants were produced by the impression made on the 

 hen- pheasant, from having white fowls before her during the 

 period of gestation. In the above account in Genesis it appears, 

 that Jacob's stratagem fully succeeded, for we are told in the last 

 verse, that ' the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle.' 

 These ring-streaked and speckled cattle of Jacob, and the brown 

 sheep, were evidently caused by impression, or the operation of 



