226 CLASS AVES. 



diameter ; the pheasants are habituated to come there and 

 take hempseed. About the month of September, nets are 

 spread in these places ; it is then easy to procure as many as 

 will serve for the following year. 



In England, pheasants are abundant enough in some parts, 

 breeding in the woods, and affording fine sport to those who 

 are fond of shooting. Like other game, they are preserved 

 by laws, which, however decried by those whose business it 

 is to pick holes in all existing institutions, are indispensably 

 necessary, in this country, to prevent the total destruction of 

 all species of this kind. 



The common pheasant does not appear to inhabit Africa ; 

 it is not found at the Cape of Good Hope, though Buffon, 

 on the authority of Kolben, assures us of the reverse. The 

 inhabitants of that colony give the name to other birds 

 (fe%ant)i among others, to a species of francolin. This is 

 the bird to which Sparmann has also given the name of 

 pheasant. 



The common pheasant is greatly multiplied in China, 

 where it lives in the woods, without mixing with the other 

 species, which are also equally abundant in this mighty 

 empire. 



We find from the travels of Pallas that pheasants are 

 found even in Siberia. They are very common among the 

 Kirghis, who ornament their bonnets with the plumes of this 

 bird. 



It is easy to conclude from the shortness of the wings of 

 the pheasant, and its consequent brief and heavy flight, that 

 it could not of itself cross the seas which separate the old 

 from the new continent ; this conclusion is confirmed by the 

 testimony of all travellers, who are agreed that no pheasants 

 are to be found through the vast extent of America ; for the 

 hoccos, penelopes, and cocks, must be utterly excluded from 



