144- PHEASANTS SCOTLAND. 



succeeded completely, for few estates are better 

 stocked with pheasants than those of Raith, We- 

 myss Castle, and Dunnikin, in Fifeshire; or Rosse 

 Priory, and Brechiri Castle, north of the river Tay. 

 The Earl of Fife has stocked his estates in Banff- 

 shire, and even so far north the pheasant thrives well. 

 In the west of Scotland I am not informed that the 

 pheasant has yet been tried beyond 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 with- 

 out winter feeding; in Scotland this perhaps more 

 particularly than in England: because, although the 

 former country may be well wooded by plantations, 

 there is very little natural wood, and of course under- 

 wood is scarce. The berries and insects that under- 

 wood affords are great sources of support to the 

 pheasant. The pheasant, the turkey, and even our 

 common cocks and hens, thrive best on a mixture of 

 corn, wild seeds and insects. The winter feeding 

 of pheasants in Scotland, is confined to throwing into 

 their resorts sheaves of oats. 



The above highly esteemed and valued friend of the 

 author, Gilbert Laing Meason, Esq. of Lindertis by 

 Kirriemuir and of Edinburgh, died this year (1833,) at 

 Venice, where he was temporarily residing with his 

 family, leaving an amiable and highly accomplished 

 widow, allied to several families of distinction in Scot- 

 land, and their eldest daughter, universally respected 

 and beloved by their friends and acquaintance, with 

 also a somewhat large juvenile family. This gentle- 

 man was brother of the late Malcolm Laing, Esq., 



