THE PHEASANT. 97 



read this little history of my warrior bird, I trust 

 they will be satisfied that he is not such a desperate 

 thief as he is generally imagined to be ; and, further- 

 more, upon due consideration, they will agree with 

 me that, when the keeper is abroad with his gun, 

 his poison, and his traps, their game may be said, 

 with great truth, to be exposed to much worse com- 

 pany than that of the carrion crow. 



HABITS OF THE PHEASANT. 



THIS splendid well-known inhabitant of our woods 

 and plains is generally supposed to have come from 

 Asia, though the time of its arrival in this cold and 

 cloudy climate seems to be quite unknown. 



A variety of this bird, sometimes spotted and 

 sometimes milk-white, appears among the other 

 pheasants, and breeds with them. I have never yet 

 been able to perceive that it continues its white or 

 varied plumage to the offspring. The plumage of 

 the white or pied pheasant seems purely accidental, 

 and is produced by a male and female of ordinary 

 colours. The ring-neck pheasant, so common in 

 the more northern parts of the kingdom, is never 

 seen in this immediate neighbourhood. 



By the laws of England, the pheasant is considered 



game ; and the sportsman is under the necessity of 



taking out a licence from government, in order to 



qualify himself to shoot it. When we consider the 



H 



