8 PHEASANT. 



It is well known that birds which have been snared will keep longer than those which 

 have been shot, and the dealers will in consequence pay more for theru; this should be 

 an additional reason for reducing the cost of game, in the legitimate way, to the dealers, 

 so as to render all competition by the poacher out of the question. Add to these con- 

 siderations the knowledge that a wide field for crime would be broken up, to the manifest 

 lessening of the criminal business at our assizes, and of the heavy expense entailed on 

 the counties by such cases. 



The food of the Pheasant is of a very miscellaneous character; and although it is 

 commonly considered that it inflicts an unmitigated injury upon the farmer, by the 

 quantity of wheat, oats, barley, beans, and peas, which it consumes, yet we think when 

 this portion of its history is read, it will be admitted that whatever positive injury it 

 commits, it also does so large an amount of good to the farmer, that it may be fair 

 matter for consideration and experiment, whether the good does not considerably outweigh 

 the evil, where the birds are not permitted to increase beyond what reason and experience 

 would point out as the proper limit to their numbers. No doubt this limit is often 

 exceeded, and sometimes to such an extent as to oblige the landlord, in common justice, 

 to return to the tenant half the rent of his farm, as compensation for the injury done 

 to his crops by the game, of which Pheasants and Hares are usually the chief. 



The food of the Pheasant varies considerably, according to the season of the year; in 

 the autumn and winter its chief subsistence is derived from seeds of various kinds, such 

 as acorns, of which it is very fond, hazel nuts, beech mast, haws, or the fruit of the 

 whitethorn, hips, the seed vessels of the wild roses, wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, 

 buckwheat, and a long catalogue of seeds of wild plants, many of them very injurious 

 to the farmer, but 'qua? nunc describere longum;' in addition to these it consumes, especially 

 during the summer and autumnal months, a very considerable quantity of insects, which, 

 if allowed to multiply, would do much damage to the crops. 



In the spring and summer its food consists chiefly of roots of various kinds, some 

 succulent plants, and an innumerable host of insects of all sorts. Among the roots on 

 which it feeds at this time of the year, may be mentioned those of 'Potentilla anserina,' 

 'Ranunculus bulbosus,' the garden tulip, to which it is said to be extremely partial, and 

 those of numerous other plants. The root of the Jerusalem artichoke is also a favourite, 

 and the potato, particularly when boiled. Among the succulent plants may be named 

 the young shoots of clover, young twigs of trees, grass, and the flowers of 'Ranunculus 

 ficaria,' one of our earliest flowering spring buttercups. Mr. Watters, in his little work on 

 the "Birds of Ireland," says that on one occasion he found a field-mouse in the stomach of 

 a Pheasant: this, we should think, must be of rare occurrence. To the above catalogue 

 may be added the leaves and bulbs of the turnip, but only occasionally. Mr. Waterton 

 recommends, as a valuable addition to a pheasantry, the planting a few roods with the 



