THE PHEASANT. 97 
read this little history of my warrior bird, I trust 
they will be satisfied that he is not such a desperate 
thief as he is generally imagined to be ; and, further- 
more, upon due consideration, they will agree with 
me that, when the keeper is abroad with his gun, 
his poison, and his traps, their game may be said, 
with great truth, to be exposed to much worse com- 
-pany than that of the carrion crow. 
HABITS OF THE PHEASANT. 
This splendid well-known inhabitant of our woods 
and plains is generally supposed to have come from 
Asia, though the time of its arrival in this cold and 
cloudy climate seems to be quite unknown. 
A variety of this bird, sometimes spotted and 
sometimes milk white, appears among the other 
pheasants, and breeds with them. 1 have never yet 
been able to perceive that it continues its white or 
varied plumage to the offspring. The plumage of 
the white. or pied pheasant seems purely accidental, 
and is produced by a male and female of ordinary 
colours. The ring-neck pheasant, so common in 
the more northern parts of the kingdom, is never 
seen in this immediate neighbourhood. 
By the laws of England, the pheasant is considered 
\ game ; and the sportsman is under the necessity of 
^ taking out a licence from government, in order to 
\ qualify himself to shoot it. When we consider the 
H 
