1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



one of the many delightful plates which illustrate 

 Harting's 'Bibliotheca Accipitraria ' is a reprint of a 

 print by F. Barlow, engraved by Hollar in 167 1, to re- 

 present a party of English falconers of the seventeenth 

 century pheasant hawking with a goshawk. One 

 would naturally suppose that the intimate relations 

 which existed long ago between France and Scotland 

 must have resulted in the early naturalisation of the 

 pheasant in the latter country, but corroborative 

 evidence is still wanting. The late Mr. Robert Gray 

 ascertained that ' the first mention of the pheasant in 

 old Scots Acts is in one dated June 8, 1594, in which 

 year a keen sportsman occupied the Scottish throne. 

 He might almost have been called ' James the Pro- 

 tector ' of all kinds of game. In the aforesaid year 

 he ' ordained that quhatsumever person or persones 

 at ony time hereafter sail happen to slay deir, 

 harts, phesants, foulls, partricks or uther wyld foule 

 quhatsumever, ather with gun, croce bow, dogges, 

 halkes, or girnes, or be uther ingine quhatsum- 

 ever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun 

 therein,' &c., shall pay the usual ' hundreth punds,' 

 &c.' The date of this Act is, after all, only a vague 

 guide as to the naturalisation of the pheasant in 

 Scotland ; but even so, it fixes it at a period long 

 ' Birds of the West of Scotland^ p. 226. 



