130 PHEASANTS SCOTLAND. 



pheasants and partridges than I had ever before, or 

 have since witnessed. There are also pheasant 

 breeders who make a trade of it, rearing two or 

 three hundred in a season. It was formerly held 

 impracticable to breed any considerable number of 

 these birds, on the supposition that they could not 

 be reared on any other food than ants' eggs, of 

 which a sufficient plenty could never be depended 

 on ; but in all probability, those already recom- 

 mended are very sufficient substitutes. 



The following information was lately communica- 

 ted to the author, by a landed Gentleman of Scot- 

 land, his respected friend. " About fifty years ago 

 the Pheasant was introduced into the South East 

 County of Scotland, which, for climate, shelter, and 

 food, is perhaps the best: within the last twenty 

 years, several Gentlemen have attempted to natura- 

 lize it in the counties of Fife and Forfar, north of 

 the great estuary of the Forth. The experiment 

 has succeeded completely, for few estates are belter 

 stocked with pheasants, than those of Raith, 

 Wemyss Castle, and Dunnikin, in Fifeshire ; or 

 Rosse Priory and Brechin Castle, north of the river 

 Tay. The Earl of Fife has stocked his estates in 

 Bamfshire, and even so far north the pheasant 

 thrives well. On the West of Scotland I am not 

 informed that the pheasant has yet been tried be- 

 yond Ayrshire, where, however, it abounds on the 

 estates of the Earls of Eglinton and Cassilis. It is 

 almost needless to mention, that pheasants will 

 abound no where without winter feeding : in Scot- 

 land this perhaps more particularly than in England ; 



