84 The Pheasant in History. 



In Ireland, as stated by Thompson in his natural history 

 of that country (1850), " The period of its introduction is 

 unknown to me, but in the year 1589 it was remarked to be 

 common." Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 to 

 1603, observes that there are " such plenty of pheasants as I 

 have known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much 

 more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce." 



In Scotland the pheasant does not appear to have been 

 preserved at a very early period. Mr. R, Gray, in his work 

 on " The Birds of the West of Scotland," says : " The first 

 mention of the pheasant in old Scotch Acts is in one dated 

 June 8, 1594, in which year a keen sportsman occupied the 

 Scottish throne." He might have been called " James the 

 protector " of all kinds of game, as in the aforesaid year he 

 " ordained that quhatsumever person or personnes at ony time 

 hereafter shall happen to slay deir, harts, pheasants, foulls, 

 partricks, or other wyld foule quhatsumever, ather with gun, 

 croce bow, dogges, halks, or girnes, or by uther ingine 

 quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun 

 therein," etc., shall pay the usual " hundreth punds," etc. 



The distribution of the pheasant over Great Britain and 

 Ireland at the present time is very general, it being found in 

 all parts of the kingdom where there is congenial shelter and 

 some shght attempt at preservation and protection, without 

 which it would soon be extirpated by poachers and its 

 numerous natural enemies. 



It is abundant even in the most populous counties, and is 

 not at all uncommon in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 metropohs. At the present time pheasants can be seen in 

 Kensington Gardens ; they bred there in 1920, and again the 

 following year in the garden in front of Kensington Palace. 

 They are a familiar sight on the garden lawn, and were fre- 

 quently to be found in the allotments which were laid out 

 during the war near the Kensington High Street. But it is 

 in the well-wooded and highly preserved districts of England 

 that these birds most abound, and where they are excessively 



