Attempts at Domestication. 37 



with her paw, but this only occurs when the bird attempts to 

 take bread, etc., from her ; and not always then, as she 

 frequently suffers herself to be robbed by him. Dick has also 

 made friends with my pointers. He sleeps in my bed- 

 room, but is by no means so early a riser as his fraternity in 

 a state of nature ; however, when he comes forth his antics 

 are amusing enough ; he shakes himself, jumps and flies 

 about the room for several minutes, and then descends into 

 the breakfast-room." Whether this bird would or would not 

 have continued tame and domesticated during the following 

 breeding season was unfortunately never ascertained, as it 

 partook of the fate of most pets, and was killed accidentally 

 by the opening of a door. 



The incapacity of pheasants for domestication has been 

 remarked by all those who have tried in vain to rear them as 

 domestic birds. Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, York- 

 shire, who died in 1865, made the attempt under most advan- 

 tageous circumstances, and thus recounts the results of his 

 experiments : " Notwithstanding the proximity of the pheasant 

 to the nature of the barndoor fowl, still it has that within it 

 "which baffles every attempt on our part to render its domesti- 

 cation complete. What I allude to is a most singular innate 

 timidity, which never fails to show itself on the sudden and 

 abrupt appearance of an object. I spent some months in 

 trying to overcome this timorous propensity in the pheasant, 

 but I failed completely in the attempt. The young birds, 

 which had been hatched under a domestic hen, soon became 

 very tame, and would even receive food from the hand when 

 it was offered cautiously to them. They would fly up to the 

 window, and would feed in company with the common poultry, 

 but if anybody approached them unawares, off they went to 

 the nearest covert with surprising velocity ; they remained in 

 it till all was quiet, and then returned with their usual con- 

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

 unexpected appearance of a pointer, while the barndoor fowls 

 seemed scarcely to notice the presence of the intruder ; the 



