220 THE PHEASANT 



unable to withstand cold and hunger together, or become so weak 

 that it would fall a prey to the smaller rapacious animals, who are 

 not a match for it when it is strong and active. A healthy cock 

 Pheasant has been known to beat ofE a cat ; a sickly one would be 

 unable to compete with a Magpie or Jay. It is, in fact, an exotic 

 running wHd, and enabled to do so only by the care of those who 

 help it to surmount the inconveniences of a life spent in a foreign 

 land. 



The Pheasant is said to have been brought originally from Colchis, 

 a country on the shores of the Black Sea, and to have derived its 

 name from the river Phasis, the famous scene of the expedition of 

 the Argonauts, bearing date about 1200 years before Christ. From 

 this epoch it is said to have been known to the Athenians, who 

 endeavoured to acclimatize it for the sake of its beauty as well as 

 the delicacy of its flesh. The Romans received it from the Greeks ; 

 but it was little known, except by name, in Germany, France, and 

 England, until the Crusades. The custom was then introduced 

 from Constantinople of sending it to table decorated with its tail 

 feathers and head, as a dish for kings and emperors — a special honour 

 until that time confined to the Peacock. WiUughby, in the seven- 

 teenth century, says of it that, from its rarity, delicacy of flavour, 

 and great tenderness, it seems to have been created for the tables 

 of the wealthy. He tells us, too, that the flesh of Pheasants caught 

 by hawking is of a higher flavour, and yet more delicate than when 

 they are taken by snares or any other method. 



The kings of France greatly encouraged the naturalization of the 

 Pheasants in the royal forests, both as an object of sport and as an 

 acquisition to the festive board, and were imitated by the nobles 

 and superior clergy. In the fourteenth century, all the royal forests, 

 the parks of Berry and the Loire, aU the woods and vineyards of the 

 rich abbeys, were peopled with Pheasants. The male bird was 

 protected by the titie of ' Royal game of the first class ', and the 

 killing of a hen was forbidden under the severest penalties. During 

 the period between the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XVI its 

 estimation increased. During the revolution royal edicts were little 

 heeded. Pheasants, no less than their owners, forfeited their dig- 

 nity, which, however, rose again somewhat under the empire. 

 Waterloo, and succeeding events, brought desolation to the Phea- 

 santries as well as to the deer-parks of France ; and now the royal 

 bird, French authors teU us, is likely to disappear from the country. 

 Already, the space which it occupies is reduced to a thirtieth part of 

 the national territory. The centre of this privileged province is 

 Paris ; its radius is not more than five-and-twenty leagues, and is 

 decreasing every year. Pheasants have disappeared from the dis- 

 tricts of the Garorme and Rhone, while in Touraine and Berry a few 

 only are to be found in walled parks. 



If the Pheasant should ever, in this country, lose the protection of 



