72 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



take the whole Eye of Pheasants both young and old, 

 and altogether without any reservation, you shall then 

 first of all learn to know the haunts of Pheasants, and 

 their usuall and common places of breeding ; other- 

 wise doe what you can, your work will be frustrate 

 and your labour spent in vain.' Markham therefore 

 sets himself to describe the ' Haunts of Pheasants : ' 

 ' The haunts then wherein Pheasants naturally doe 

 abide and breed are not in open and plain Fields (for 

 their fears are so great, and their cowardlynesse so 

 much, that they dare not live without covert or shelter), 

 nor yet under the covert of Corn-fields, low shrubes 

 or bushes, neither yet in tall high Woods, where every 

 Tree may fidy be imployed for Timber. But in thick 

 young coppses well grown, and ready for ordinary 

 sail of small bushwood, Poales and the like, having 

 been divers years reserved from the haunts of Cattell 

 of all kindes, and from the tracing and paths of mens 

 feet : by reason of which solitarynesse and safenesse, 

 the Pheasants take great delight herein, and will here 

 above all other places breed and bring forth her 

 young ones, provided that it be ever thick grown and 

 obscure, for if it be otherwise thin, plain, and passable, 

 she will neither breed, nor come near it, for she ac- 

 counts the strength of her covert to be her only safety.' 

 After this dissertation, Markham undertakes to 



