THE IfBEASANT OF THE WOODLANDS 39 



keep near the ground, so that, in case of danger, it 

 may instantly dash into the nearest bushes or thicket. 

 The frightened pheasant, uttering a shrill and dis- 

 cordant cry of alarm, suddenly flies up almost per- 

 pendicularly into the air, and, having risen from 

 forty to sixty yards high, immediately shoots off at a 

 tangent, and then flies off, at a right angle, to the 

 wood or thicket, where it hides itself in a trice.' 



As regards the distribution of the wild pheasant, 

 we learn from Djanaschvili that this bird is still to be 

 found in Mingrelia and Samouzakani. In other parts, 

 as, for instance, the districts of Sharopan, Ratchinsk, 

 and Letchgoum, pheasants have unfortunately been 

 altogether exterminated. In Lower Imeretia, and 

 in Gouria, very few remain ; one sportsman with 

 a dog can with difficulty bag five head in a day. 

 The local inhabitants of Gouria afifirm that formerly 

 pheasants abounded in their region. This also is 

 testified to by the geographer, Vakhousti Bagration, 

 in his ' Geography of Georgia,' completed by him on 

 October 20, 1745. He asserts that the pheasant 

 (khokobi) abounds everywhere in Georgia, but espe- 

 cially in Kakhetia and the Zakatal district. The 

 pheasant is still common in those districts ; but, above 

 all, in the Zakatal Circuit, whence every autumn large 

 quantities of dead pheasants are sent to Tiflis. Mr. 



