THE PHEASANT. 39 



H. B. Daniel," the following extraordinary instance is related 

 respecting a change in the plumage of a female of this species. 

 Lady Tynte had a favourite pied peahen, which at eight several 

 times produced chicks. Having moulted when about eleven 

 years old, her ladyship and the family were astonished, by the 

 creatures displaying feathers peculiar to the other sex, and ap- 

 pearing like a pied peacock. In this process, the tail, which re- 

 sembled that of the cock, first appeared. In the following year 

 she moulted again, and produced similar feathers. In the third 

 year she did the same, and then had also spurs like those of the 

 cock; but it is remarked that she never bred after this change 

 of her plumage. She is now preserved in the Leverian 

 Museum. 



. Of this curious bird there "are several varieties, but the pea- 

 cock of Tibet is universally allowed to be the most beautiful of 

 all the feathered race. Its colours are blue, yellow, red, and 

 green ; all blended with the most artificial exactness, and form- 

 ing the most pleasing combinations, in which Nature seems to 

 have exerted all her skill, and exhibited all her beauties. 



THE PHEASANT, 



Next to the peacock, holds the second rank in the gradation 

 of beauty, among the feathered tribes. To make a minute com- 

 parison between the most beautiful of each species, the admirer 

 of Nature's works would be puzzled to determine which of the 

 two has the greatest claim to pre-eminence. Nothing, indeed, 

 can satisfy the eye with a greater variety and richness of orna- 

 ment than the plumage of the pheasant, whether we regard the 

 dazzling brilliancy of its colours, or their elegant mixture. It 

 far surpasses all the efforts of the pencil, to exhibit tints so glossy 

 and so bright, or points so finely blended. 



Every scholar is acquainted with the story of Solon the Greek 

 philosopher, and Croesus, king of Lydia. We are told that the 

 monarch, being seated on his throne, adorned with all the ap- 

 pendages of terrestrial grandeur, asked Solon if he had ever seen 

 so magnificent a spectacle ? The philosopher, nothing moved 

 by the pomp and pageantry with which he was surrounded, coolly 

 answered, that, " after having seen the plumage of the pheasant, 

 he could not be astonished at the sight of any other finery." 

 This answer of the Grecian sage is worthy of being recorded • 

 it was well calculated to remind that powerful and opulent mon- 

 arch of the inferiority of all artificial ornaments, when compared 

 with the magnificence of Nature, and of the insignificancy of all 

 human greatness and splendour before the Creator and Sov- 

 ereign of the universe. It will be remembered also, that a far 

 greater personage than the Greek philosopher, has taught us the 



