THE PHEASANT OF THE WOODLANDS 37 



such violence as to produce speedy death. But such 

 an incident is quite unlikely to recur, and no pains 

 should be spared to protect and encourage our wood - 

 peckers in every possible way. 



The idea of the comparative tameness of home-bred 

 pheasants is so familiar to the majority of people, that it 

 is startling to find how shy are their kindred in the 

 valleys of the Caucasus. 'The shyness and un- 

 sociability of the pheasant,' writes Mr. Djanaschvili, 

 'has become so well known that amongst the Georgians 

 of the Zakatal district it has passed into the proverb, 

 " Unsociable as a pheasant ; " also the saying, " Feed 

 them as much as you will, they will still always keep 

 their eyes turned towards the woods," is equally applied 

 to the wolf and the pheasant. Attempts to domesticate 

 the pheasant have always failed. The trial has often 

 been made of placing a pheasant's egg under an 

 ordinary fowl, but as soon as the chick was hatched 

 it has always succeeded in making off within two 

 or three days.' ' Another correspondent writes that 

 pheasants ' love solitude and promptly fly off on 

 hearing the slightest noise, fearing themselves to be 

 in danger.' He adds that the wild nature of the 

 pheasant induces it to shun even its own species. 



One of the traits of wild life which still survive 



' Caucasian Agricultttre, October 27, 1894. 



