366 THE PHEASANT 



Where the discharge of fire-arms is strictly prohibited, you will find 

 that the shyest species of birds will soon forget their wariness, and 

 assume habits which persecution prevents them from putting in 

 practice. Thus the cautious heron will take up its abode in the 

 immediate vicinity of your mansion ; the barn owl will hunt for mice 

 under the blazing sun of noon, even in the very meadow where the 

 haymakers are at work ; and the wigeons will mix, in conscious 

 security, with the geese, as they pluck the sweet herbage on your 

 verdant lawn ; where the hares may be seen all day long, now lying 

 on their sides to enjoy the warmth of the sun, and now engaged in 

 sportive chase, unbroken in upon by enemies, whose sole endeavour 

 is to take their lives. 



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 phea- 

 sant 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 con- 

 sider the habits of this bird, we are apt to doubt of the propriety of 

 placing it under the denomination of fera naturcl; and I am one of 

 those who think that it would be a better plan to put it on the same 

 footing with the barn-door fowl, by making it private property ; that 

 is, by considering it the property of the person in whose field or 



