228 THE COOKERY OF THE PHEASANT 



able, from the bramble brakes and arbutus groves of 

 Western Ireland to the hanging covers on the hills 

 in the Asian Highlands. Where he has not free 

 range, with fair immunity from poachers, he is 

 absolutely dependent on artificial protection. For 

 the charm which popularises him for the table lies 

 in his being the connecting link between the wild 

 game bird and the coop-reared capon of the poultry 

 yard. He is plump, well-sized, and delicately 

 flavoured. The resin-scented capercailzie and the 

 noble bustard, unhappily extinct in England — who, 

 by the way, runs very much to sinew from excessive 

 pedestrian exercise — are, like the wild turkey, far too 

 formidable in proportions to figure gracefully in 

 the second course. As for the peacock, with the 

 swan he has long ago gone out of fashion, and 

 indeed the glory of the bird is in his plumage, 

 although a tender young peafowl is by no means 

 to be despised. So that the pride of place has 

 fallen indisputably to the pheasant. Brillat-Savarin, 

 who, as he owns himself, affected an appetite he un- 

 fortunately did not possess, does not disguise his pre- 

 ference for the beccafico That delightful little bird 

 has the flavour and melting bouquet of the sun-warmed 

 figs on which he gorges. But perhaps the most pathetic 

 passage in the sentimental ' Physiologie de Gotit,' is 



