Inherited Wildness. 25 



recorded in days of the old fashions by a correspondent, who 

 wrote as follows : " Having recently been on a visit to a friend 

 of mine living in Kent, I had an opportunity of there witnessing 

 the effect of an extraordinary antipathy to crinoline exemplified 

 in a fine cock pheasant which inhabited, or rather infested, 

 the gromids and shrubbery. He had been originally, I believe, 

 reared on the premises, but had become as wild as any of his 

 fellows, and, after having been lord of a harem of some seven 

 or eight ladies last spring, who had all reared their families 

 and gone off with them, had been left in loneliness, with his 

 temper soured against the female sex at large. His beat was 

 for about a quarter of a mile between the house and the 

 entrance-gate, and on the approach of anything in the shape 

 of crinoline his temper was roused to siich a degree that he 

 attacked it with all his might and main, flying up at the 

 unnatural appendage, pecking fiercely with his bill, and 

 striking out at it with his spurs like any game-cock. I 

 witnessed all this with my own eyes, and was not surprised 

 at the terror he had created among the females, by whom he 

 was positively dreaded, and not without reason. One lady 

 had promised to protect herself by taking a terrier as her 

 guardian, which at first offered fight in her defence, but was 

 soon compelled to show the white feather, and at the very 

 sight of his antagonist ran off with his tail between his legs. 

 At length, however, he met with his master in the shape of a 

 gipsy-woman, who, being of course uncrinolined, and there- 

 fore considering herself unjustly attacked, set upon him, and 

 not only pulled out his tail, but crushed him with her foot, 

 and left him on his back apparently in the agonies of death. 

 The domestics, however, went to his assistance, and by their 

 kind attentions he was restored. Still, his old antipathy 

 revived with his returning strength, and in a day or two the sight 

 of crinoHne again roused his wrath. Therefore, for fear of his 

 meeting with an untimely end from some other strong-minded 

 woman, it was decided that he should have his wing clipped, 

 and be kept prisoner within the walls of the kitchen-garden." 



