370 



PHEASANT. 



uncommon in this country. *"It would appear," says Selby, "that 

 the northern parts of the kingdom are particularly suitable to them, 

 as they are making- considerable progression, and have, within a com- 

 paratively short space of time, spread themselves over the whole 

 county of Northumberland. In this district the ring-necked variety 

 is most prevalent, and has nearly superseded the common kind. The 

 principal food of the Pheasant in the winter months is grain and seeds, 

 but in spring and summer it lives more upon roots and insects. I have 

 observed that the root of the bulbous crowfoot, (Ranunculus bulbosus,} 

 a common but acrid meadow plant, is particularly sought after by this 

 bird, and forms a great portion of its food during the months of May 

 and June. The root of the garden tulip is also an article of diet, which 

 it omits no opportunity of obtaining, and which, by means of its bill and 

 feet, it is almost certain to reach, however deep it may be buried."* 



In the early period of life, the infant Pheasants are delicate in con- 

 finement, for want of that food with which nature has so amply sup- 

 plied their table in the wilderness : yet a large portion, with care, pass 

 this delicate age, but have still to contend with that period of life when 

 their nestling feathers are to be superseded by adult plumage. This is 

 the time that many droop, for want of strength to support so consi- 

 derable an exhaustion of animal secretion, to the furtherance of that 

 great design. But of all the maladies under which this species, as well 

 as some others of a similar nature, suffer, there is none so horribly de- 

 structive as the oscitans, or the distemper usually called the gapes, 

 occasioned by an intestinal worm, (Fasciolo trachea, Montagu,) which, 

 lodging in the wind-pipe, (trachea,} causes death by suffocation, from 

 the inflamed state of the part. 



We have been assured by Lord Caernarvon, that in his pheasantry, at 

 Pixton, in Somersetshire, not above ten young ones are brought to 

 maturity out of a hundred eggs, and that the greater number die about 

 the age when the distinction of sexual plumage begins to be visible ; at 

 that age his lordship has generally found the gaping distemper to rage 

 most violently. 



Mr. Herbert attributes his success in rearing Pheasants, to the cele- 

 brity of his keeper, who being aware that the disease was occasioned 

 by worms, treated it as is usual with other animals having a vermicular 

 complaint. How far the nosological knowledge of this iEsculapian 

 keeper, or even his physiological enquiries may have directed his pre- 

 scription, we shall not here discuss ; but we cannot suppose that a 

 pellet or two of rue, mixed with butter, with which the Pheasants are 

 crammed, can produce that beneficial effect he seems to ascribe to it. 



