THE PHEASANT. 73 



favoured districts, remote from the busy haunts of 

 men, and where considerable territorial authority 

 still obtains, much care, experience, and atten- 

 tion are necessary at all stages of its existence 

 for its welfare and preservation. 



We must recollect that the pheasant is, strictly 

 speaking, an exotic as much so as the turkey 

 or the guinea-fowl and, although many cen- 

 turies have elapsed since his first introduction 

 to these islands, yet his absence from our farm 

 yards and homesteads is not to be attributed 

 to want of attention or spirit on the part of 

 our breeders or farmers, but to an innate shy- 

 ness and timidity which have hitherto foiled 

 every effort to reclaim him thoroughly from a 

 state of nature. 



He therefore seems to occupy a position mid- 

 way between the domesticated inhabitants of 

 the fowl-yard and those wild denizens of the 

 fields and the mountains, the partridge and the 

 grouse ; but while it should be the sportsman's 

 object to elevate him as much as possible above 

 the ignoble character of a poultry-bird, and to 

 render him, as far as may be, fera naturd, he 

 must remember that in these days there are 

 many serious obstacles to the welfare, nay even 

 to the existence of the pheasant, in this thickly 

 inhabited island, which can be counterbalanced 



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