PHEASANTS AND BUSTARDS. 95 



given to it. A second instance of one of these birds 

 attacking a human being, occurred about a fortnight 

 afterwards near the same spot, and under circum- 

 stances very similar. The horse, however, took 

 fright, became unmanageable at so unexpected an 

 attack, and ran awa} r with his rider. 



In the above cases, we find only an increase of 

 that spirit with which Nature has endowed them; 

 but the clergyman who possessed the pugnacious 

 Cock just mentioned, had a Hen, which so far over- 

 came its natural fear of water, as to be in the con- 

 stant habit of making a short cut from the church- 

 yard (into which she, with the rest of the poultry, 

 occasionally wandered) to the barn-yard, by regularly 

 swimming across a pool, which was situated between 

 it and the church-yard. The distance was about 

 thirty yards, and the part of the pool where she 

 crossed, was so near the end of it, that the other 

 fowls, which came round, arrived before her. This 

 lien had another uncommon propensity, that of 

 catching mice, a practice she pursued with the 

 greatest eagerness, and when caught, she was seen 

 to run off with them; whether she ate them or not, 

 was never know r n with certainty; at all events, she 

 did not do so invariably, as they were sometimes 

 found dead, up and down the yard. 



It has been often doubted whether the Pheasant 

 will breed with the common Hen > but the following 

 account from a highly-respectable authority*, seems 

 to set the question at rest, and deserves the atten- 

 tion of those who are interested in the improvement 

 of their race of poultry. 



* Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. V. 



