THE PHEASANT IN HISTORY 



topic will be found in the twenty-second volume of 

 the 'Catalogue of Birds,' written by Mr. Ogilvie Grant, 

 a leading authority upon game birds. 



The Common Pheasant was a favourite in Italian 

 poultry yards in the days of the Augustan Empire ; 

 but its treatment in confinement does not appear to 

 have been described by any writer prior to Palladius, 

 who is conjectured to have flourished about the time 

 of Valentinian and Theodosius. Palladius followed 

 Varro in many of his rules about agriculture ; but 

 ^his instructions for pheasant breeding appear to be 

 original. He tells us that those who wish to rear 

 pheasants should select birds of the previous year 

 for that purpose, as old birds prove barren. Hen 

 pheasants lay in March and April. A single cock 

 will suffice to run with a couple of hens. The latter 

 lay about twenty eggs apiece and only breed once in 

 the season. It is best to place the eggs under 

 domestic fowls, and a hen will cover fifteen pheasant 

 eggs. Young pheasants should be fed for the first 

 fortnight of their lives upon boiled barley meal which 

 has been allowed to cool gradually. The meal re- 

 quires to be sprinkled with wine for the first fortnight 

 of their existence, after which we are advised to offer 

 them pounded wheat, locusts and ants' eggs. The 

 proper way of fattening a pheasant is to shut it up for 



