AT HOME IN ASIA. 
27 
very early period, highly valued as table delicacies, and 
that means were taken to protect them and keep np the 
breed. We are told that they are still found in great 
beauty and abundance in the quarter of the globe whence 
they originated, and especially about the banks of that 
ancient river Phasis ; but so kindly have they taken to our 
soil and climate, that, notwithstanding the murderous on- 
slaughts annually made upon them, we question if rocky 
Colchis itself, or, as we now say, MingreKa, could furnish 
such good sport for the pheasant-shooter as our own green 
woods and fields of fruitful tillage. All through the coun- 
try, as far north as Northumberland, we find it diffused ; of 
course, much more plentiful in some localities than in others, 
according to the care bestowed on its preservation, and to 
the character of the scenery. It loves woods with a thick 
undergrowth of long tangled grass, and thorny brakes, and 
ferny hollows, where the foxglove and the wild hyacinth 
spread a purple flush through the cool shade ; the hazel 
copse and shrubby plantation it loves, and the ozier holt 
or marshy island, overgrown with reeds and rushes ; 
wood and water it must have, and plenty of them, or it 
will soon die out, or fly away to lands more congenial to 
its nature. It may be found in the thick hedgerows, and 
corn fields, and clover patches ; but its home is not there ; 
it wants a world of greenery to wander in — a wild free 
sylvan tract — where it may at least fancy itself secure from 
man and his misdoings. Although, as it were, a semi- 
domesticated bird, depending on human aid for its very safety 
and means of existence, yet is it one of the shyest and 
wildest of all the creatures about us. It will not ' come and 
be killed' like a duck, or a barn-door fowl ; will not listen 
to the voice of the charmer, ^ charm he never so wisely ; ' 
but persists in disbelieving in the benevolent intentions of 
its pursuer, and in hiding away in the thickest coverts, and 
crouching close like a heap of dead leaves that have been 
transmuted into gold by the autumn sunshine. Oh ! a 
glorious bird ; but unsociable, very ; and to preserve its 
life would persist in getting away if it could, although it 
knew that you would kill it in the most scientific manner, 
without ruffling a feather, and that you had tramped for 
