390 SHOOTING. 



The bird, arrayed in mail of gold, rises in some 

 deep-wooded glen, where the sound of his wings 

 may be compared to thunder, such the effect of 

 reverberation in the echoing valleys ! the golden 

 plumage glitters in the sun ! the report of the 

 fowling-piece is like that of a small piece of ordnance ! 

 the blue neck falls instantly under the burnished 

 wing ! the pinions close ! and the next moment, 

 the " whirring pheasant," the pride of the British 

 woods, lies bleeding on the ground ! the long-rolling 

 echo dies in the distance, and the stillness of 

 Arcady again reigns around ! Such is pheasant- 

 shooting ; but with all its attractions, it is not, in 

 the opinion of many sportmen, to be compared 

 with the pursuit of the grouse through the track- 

 less heather, or of the scarcer woodcock in the 

 winter woods. It is the rarity and difficulty of 

 attainment of a bird that renders the acquisition of 

 it desirable to the true sportsman. He does not 

 estimate the value of a blackcock, which he may 

 have had the good fortune to bag in November, by 

 the current price of the day. 



The pheasant is the most splendidly arrayed of 

 undomesticated British birds. It is deservedly in 

 high request amongst sportsmen, and it claims the 

 first attention of the game-preserver. The number- 

 less plantations and coppices which are everywhere 

 springing up, afford yearly additional shelter. The 

 pheasant prefers woods of oak and beech, that it 

 may feed on the acorns and mast. The fine old 

 woods consisting of these trees may perhaps be 

 diminishing, but they are more than replaced by 



