THE PHEASANT. 



107 



and by those going in search of them, his wildfowl 

 would never desert the pool till their day of mi- 

 gration arrived ; and his pheasants (except for the 

 purpose of incubation, and then in no great quan- 

 tities,) would seldom rove beyond the protected 

 enclosure. 



The teal and wigeons stay with me till the last 

 week in April ; long after the pochards and the 

 main flocks of mallards have winged their flight to 

 northern polar regions ; and a white male pheasant 

 has taken up his abode here, for seven years, with- 

 out having been once seen to wander half a mile 

 from the house. 



Birds thus protected have very different habits 

 from those which are exposed to the caprice and per- 

 secutions of man. When the ornithologist pays at- 

 tention to them, in their safe retreat^ where they 

 can follow, without molestation, the impulse of that 

 instinct which has been so bountifully given to them, 

 he will have great cause to suspect that there is 

 many an error, and many a false conclusion, in the 

 works which we have at present, on the habits and 

 economy of the feathered race. These errors are, 

 no doubt, quite unintentional on the part of the 

 writers on British ornithology ; and can only be 

 corrected by great care, and a frequent personal 

 attendance at those places where birds are encou- 

 raged and befriended. 



