254 



THE COMMON PHEASANT. 



BO fixed on the dogs, that the sportsman can without difficulty ap 

 proach within gun-shot. It has been asserted that the Pheasant ima 

 gines itself out of danger whenever its head only is concealed. Sports- 

 men, however, who recount the stratagems that they have known old 

 Cock Pheasants to adopt, in thick and extensive coverts, before they 

 could be compelled to take win<r, convince us that this bird is by nd 

 means deficient in the contrivances that are necessary for its own' 

 preservation. 



At the commencement of cold weather, Pheasants fly after sun set 

 into the b r aiiches of *the oak-trees, and there roosc during tLe i I 



COMMON PHEASANTS. 



This they do more frequently as the winter advances, and the trees 

 lose their foliage. The male birds, at these times, make a noise, 

 which they repeat three or four times successively, called by sports- 

 men cocketmg. The hens, on flying up, utter one shrill whittle, and 

 Vhcn are silent. Poachers avail themselves of these notes, to discover 

 ibe roosting places ; and there (in woods that are not well watched) 

 they shoot them with the greatest certaintv. Where woods are 

 watched, the poacher, by means of phosphorus, lights several brimstone 

 matches; and he moment the sulphurous fumes reach the birds, 

 they drop to the ground. Or, he fastens a snare of wire to the end 

 of a long pole ; a ad by means of this, drags them, one by one, from 

 the trees. lie sometimes catches these birds in nooses made of wire, 

 or twisted horsehair, or even with a briar set in the form of a noose, 

 at the verge of a wood. The birds entangle themselves in these, as 



