368 THE PHEASANT. 



which we may be enabled to trace the cause of failure in the many 

 attempts which have been made to invite it to breed in our yards, 

 and retire to rest with the barn-door fowl and turkey. 



Though a preserve of pheasants is an unpopular thing, still I am 

 satisfied in my own mind that the bird cannot exist in this country 

 without one ; at the same time, I am aware that a preserve may be 

 overdone. Thus, when pheasants are reserved for a day of slaughter 

 under the appellation of a battu, the regular supply of the market is 

 endangered, the diversion has the appearance of cruelty, and no 

 good end seems to be answered. It exposes the preservers of 

 pheasants in general to the animadversions of an angry press, which 

 are greedily read, and long remembered, by those whose situation in 

 life precludes them from joining in the supposed diversion. How- 

 ever ardently I may wish to protect the pheasant in an ornithologi- 

 cal point of view, I say ornithological, for its flesh I heed not, 

 still, I am fully aware that the danger to be incurred, and the odium 

 to be borne, are mighty objections. We read that the ancients 

 sacrificed a cock to ^sculapius : perhaps the day is at no great dis- 

 tance when it will be considered an indispensable act of prudence 

 for the country gentleman to offer up his last hecatomb of pheasants 

 at the shrine of public opinion. 



The more we look into the habits of the pheasant, the more 

 we must be persuaded that much greater attention ought to be paid 

 to it than is generally paid to other kinds of game. The never-fail- 

 ing morning and evening notice which it gives of its place of retreat, 

 together with its superior size, causes it to be soon detected and 

 easily killed. The tax, too, which Government has put upon it, 

 enhances its value as an indispensable delicacy at the tables of those 

 who give good cheer. In .fact, few are the autumnal and winter din- 

 ners of the wealthy where a roasted pheasant does not grace the 

 second course. The fowling-piece of the nocturnal poacher is the 

 most fatal weapon used for its destruction. The report of a gun or 

 a clap of thunder, during the night, will often cause the pheasants 

 to begin to crow, as I have already stated ; and this greatly en- 

 dangers their safety. When once they are frightened from their roost, 

 they never perch again during the remainder of the night, but take 

 refuge among the grass and underneath the hedges, where they fall 



