BIRDS 335 



tion of the Pheasant had really taken place, as Machell hints at, 

 it is highly probable that the first birds were sent to Westmor- 

 land out of Yorkshire. We know from the Earl of Northum- 

 berland's Household Book that ' Fesauntes ' were ordered ' to be 

 hade for my Lordes owne Mees at Principale Feestes, and to be 

 at xij d a pece,' early in the sixteenth century ; that Pheasants 

 were occasionally sent to Cumberland out of Yorkshire a century 

 later, is exemplified by the entry in Lord William Howard's 

 Accounts for 1629 : ' Januarij. ... To a manne which brought 

 a phesson out of Yorkshire, v s .' But Machell himself tells us 

 that a member of the Lowther family introduced Pheasants into 

 Westmorland, bringing the birds from Yorkshire : ' But it hath 

 bin lately attempted by Mr. Lowther to restore that game, who 

 2 or 3 years since [1677-1698] brought young ones over out of 

 Yorkshire hither ; but the countrey people distroy'd them, before 

 they increased to any considerable repleunishing number.' The 

 failure of this attempt to introduce Pheasants into Lakeland 

 appears to have damped the ardour of our sportsmen, because 

 for the next hundred years they contented themselves with 

 shooting Grouse and Partridges. The Rev. J. Wilson has 

 kindly pointed out to me that Pheasants were included in an 

 order against poaching made by the magistrates at the Cocker- 

 mouth Sessions in January 1701-2. But I hardly think that 

 this would warrant the supposition that Pheasants existed at 

 that time in Cumberland. As lately as 1784 Clarke wrote that 

 there were no Pheasants in Cumberland. This deficiency was 

 remedied by the enterprise of Sir James Graham, Lord Mun- 

 caster, and some other gentlemen; so that when the County 

 History appeared, 1794-7, Dr. Heysham and Mr. Nicholson in- 

 dependently announced the fact of its recent introduction ; the 

 estates of Netherby and Muncaster being perhaps the first upon 

 which the Pheasant was established in the north and west of 

 Cumberland. The first years of our century witnessed the 

 extension of its range to all the coverts of Lakeland, but the 

 original strain was destined to give place to the Ring-necked 

 Pheasant, which is now the dominant species, though on some 

 estates great pains are taken to stamp out the new-comers, and 

 to keep only the old-fashioned red-rumped birds. 



