84 PHEASANT SHOOTING, 



falls, as it were, perpendicularly into it. This, of 

 course, prevents all scent of their seat. 



During the winter, turnip-fields in the neigh- 

 bourhood of covers, about three in the afternoon, are 

 good places for pheasants. By beating from the 

 cover, with a steady dog, you will get fair sporting. 

 Your dog should quarter from your signal, and drop 

 at wing or shot on the instant. The pheasant is the 

 prince of the game birds of our island, to be met 

 with in such store as to entitle him to the notice of the 

 sportsman. It is true, the capercalzie exists among 

 our forests, and so does the wild turkey of America 

 in the woods of a Yorkshire preserver ; but, as a 

 species, the pheasant is the noblest of British game. 

 Odd enough that we should derive it from China, 

 which certainly does not furnish us with the best 

 samples of " the human form divine." 



The common Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus). 

 Britain cannot boast, among her ornithological beau- 

 ties, the indigenous possession of this bird. It has 

 no claim, in common with any of its family, the 

 Phasianidce, to a place in European fauna. It is, 

 notwithstanding, perhaps, the most successful of all 

 our introductions. It was brought into Britain, in 

 the reign of Edward the First, according to Echard ; 

 and into Europe from Colchis (whence it still retains 

 its name), 1250 years before the Christian era. The 

 pheasant is found in abundance spread over all the 

 woods and forests of England, as well as from the 

 south to the middle of Scotland. In Ireland, from 



