98 
THE PHEASANT. 
habits of this bird, we are apt to doubt of the pro-: 
priety of placing it under the denomination of /em 
naturd ; and I am one of those who think that it 
would be a better plan to put it on the same footing } 
with the barn-door fowl, by making it private pro- I 
perty ; that is, by considering it the property of the ' 
person in whose field or wood it may be found, j 
The pheasant is a more than half- reclaimed bird^ 1 
While the hare and the partridge wander in wildest j 
freedom through the land, heedless of the fostering i 
care of man ; the bird in question will come to us, 
at all hours of the day, to be fed. It will even some- 
times associate with the poultry on the farm ; and;^ 
where it is not disturbed, it will roost in trees, close 
to our habitations. 
Its produce with the barn-door fowl is unprolific, I 
and seems to have nothing to recommend it to our \ 
notice on the score of brilliancy of plumage, or of j| 
fineness of shape. 
The pheasant crows at all sea^^ons, on retiring to 
roost. It repeats the call often during the night, 
and again at early dawn ; and frequently in the day j 
time on the apppearance of an enemy, or at the re« 
port of a gun, or during a thunder storm. ^ I am of jj 
opinion that it does not pair. The female lays from j 
seven to eighteen eggs; but in general the nest | 
contains about twelve. ! 
Notwithstanding the proximity of the pheasant 
to the nature of the barn-door fowl, still it has that 
within it which baffles every attempt on our part to || 
render its domestication complete. What I allude 
to is, a most singular innate timidity, which never 
