15 
PHEASANT. 
CHAPTER II. 
PHEASANTS : — THE COMMON, GOLD AND SILVER — IMPEYAN, 
AND reeves' pheasants. 
Bird of resplendant plumes ! that lov'st to take 
Thy pleasure in the brown October woods, 
Amid the featherj' fern, and tangled brake ; 
Shy haunter of the sylvan solitudes, 
"Where seldom foot of wayfarer intrudes ; 
That with thy sober-suited mate dost dwell 
In alleys green, where silence ever broods, 
Till startled by the sharp report — thy knell ! 
Bright Asian bird, who brought thee hither, say, 
From where the Phasis laves its yellow sands ? 
Was 't he who bore the golden fleece away. 
And led the Argonauts to distant lands ? 
No golden fleece more bright than thou, I ween, 
Lighting the sombre woods with iridescent sheen. 
THE PhasianidcB is a family of birds belonging to the 
order Gallmce^ that is, galinaceoiis birds, sometimes 
called RasoreSj or Scrapers. They are mostly of large size 
and great beauty of plumage, and are much sought after as 
food, being often domesticated for that piu'pose. The Pea- 
cocks, Turkeys, and various breeds of domestic fowls known 
to us, all belong to this order, of which the Pheasant genus 
(^Fhasianus) is the type ; and the typical species, the com- 
