e 



28 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



offered cautiously to them. They would fly up to tlie vTindow, 

 and would feed in company witli the comm(jn poultry, but if 

 anybody approached tliem unawares, off they went to the 

 nearest covei-t with surprising velocity ; they remained in it 

 till all was rpjict, and then returned with their nsual con- 

 fideuce. Two of them lost their lives in the water by the 

 unexpected appearance of a pointer, wliile tjie barndoor fowls 

 seemed scarcely t(j n(jtice the presence of the intruder; the 

 rest took finally to the woods at the commencement of the 

 breeding season. This particular kind of timidity, wliich 

 does not ajipear in our domestic fowls, seems to me to oppose 

 the only, though at the saiue time an unsurmountable, l)ar 

 to our tinal triumph over the pheasant. After attentiv 

 observation, I can perceive nothing else in the habits of tlie 

 bird to serve as a, clue Ijy which we may be enabled to trace 

 tlie cause of failure in the many attempts which have Ijeen 

 made to invito it to breed in our yards, and retire to rest with 

 the barndoor fowl anil turkey." 



With regard tu tlu^ date of the introduction of the 

 ])heasant into h]iiglinid, there are no record.s which afl'ord any 

 clue to the pi-ecise date when it was first lirought to this 

 country; and though prcjbably its acclimatisation does not go 

 further back than the Norman ("niniuest, yet it is possible that 

 our l^onian invaders may luive im])orted it at a much earher 

 period, with otlna- imperial luxuries. 



Lord TjiU(.)i-d, ill his " Notes on the Birds of Xorthampton- 

 shire," writes . " There apjiears to be no reason to doubt that 

 the pheasiiiit w:is iiitro(biced into Kiigland by the Koinans, 

 and the Inrd Inis now become so spread over most piarts of 

 Europe that it is almost impossible to say where it is really 

 indigenous." 



This sugge'^tiou is ]iossibly near the truth, for the pheasant 

 has been shown liy I'rof. Iloyd Dawkins to have been 

 naturalised in this country upwards of eight hundred years. 

 Writing m TJh' lln.-; for ] SOU (page o")S),he oliserves : "It 

 may interest your readers to know that the most ancient 



