THE PHEASANT. 



93 



generic characters are : bill short and strong; cheeks smoothed 

 with naked skin ; legs of the male, for the most part, spurred. 

 The common cock is the " Phasianus gallus," and the com- 

 mon pheasant is the " Phasianus Colchicus rufous, head 

 blue, checks red, papillous ; bill pale horn colour, tail wedged. 

 The bird is about nineteen inches long, and weighs from two 

 to three pounds in weight. The Argonauts first found it in 

 Colchis, and imported it into Greece, whence it has spread 

 very widely. We have no certain account at what time it 

 was introduced into Britain. 



The pheasant is a very handsome bird ; the figure is dig- 

 nified, the deportment bold, and the plumage resplendent. 

 Though they may be domesticated, yet they always retire to 

 a dark sohtude, and live as far as possible from human 

 dwellings. They breed once a year, and lay about twenty 

 eggs. The time of incubation is from twenty to twenty-five 

 days. 



The pheasant is kept as a bird of pleasure in game pre- 

 serves, where artificial cover is formed, and food is laid in 

 profusion, in the shape of barley and potatoes. It eats all 

 sorts of grains and herbs, and seeds of every kind, and also 

 small insects. When numerous, they make depredations on 

 new-sown beans, peas, and tares ; and in early harvest they 

 attack grain of every kind. The size of the body tramples 

 down more grain than it eats, and the strength of the bill en- 

 ables it to dig the ground for seeds. The injuries done by 

 pheasants are doubly offensive to the farmer, as he is pro- 

 hibited by the game laws from using any means of lessening 

 the number of the animals. The keeping of such nuisances 

 within proper bounds forms the true protection to agricul- 

 ture ; and not the raising the prices of food by artificial regula- 

 tions, in order to starve the consumers by placing beyond 

 their reach the very first elements of existence. 



