164 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



to be found in every corner of almost every county, and that not 

 simply in a semi-domesticated state, but oft-times in a state of 

 Nature, in which it is well able to look after itself; and though its 

 presence amongst us may not be the cause of un-mixed good, yet 

 most people surely will allow that the good it is the author of far 

 outweighs the evil. His plumage is pleasant to the eye. His flesh 

 pleases the palate. His rearing and preservation affords employment 

 to hundreds of people. His presence is the occasion of many a re- 

 union of friends. His slaughter, true recreation, and keen pleasure 

 to scores of sportsmen — not the pleasure, my sentimental friend, of 

 taking life, but that arising from the manly exercise of keen eye, 

 and true hand ; and that satisfaction, stigmatise it as you will, which 

 does accrue from the successful outwitting, through the use o£ 

 reason and intelligence, of the keenly-developed instinct inherent 

 in the animal creation. Nor must we fail to add to the category of 

 good which this bird gives rise to, the true gratitude awakened in 

 the mind of the recipient, when an unexpected brace of Pheasants 

 is brought to his door, and the genuine' pleasure also experienced by 

 the unselfish donor. This is a long list of benefits to be mentioned 

 as accruing from the presence of this noble bird amongst us, and 

 are all these to be counterbalanced and outweighed by this one 

 drawback, i.e., that he is sometimes the innocent cause of illustrating 

 the truth of this homely couplet : — 



" He that takes what isn't his'n, 

 When he's caught must go to prison." 



I fail to see it ; and while I should be always a strong advocate for 

 dealing leniently with the ordinary poacher, from the remembrance 

 how deeply the innate love of sport is ingrained in the British con- 

 stitution, and that it is only the accident of birth or wealth that 

 enables one man lawfully to follow out the passion of his heart, 

 while the lack of it forbids the other to do so ; yet there can be no 

 excuse whatever for the organised midnight attack on the preserves, 

 where far more than the life of bird or animal is at stake, and which 

 arouses the direst passions of our human nature. A man might just 

 as well empty his neighbour's poultry yard, as his Pheasant preserve, 



