PHEASANT. 
I’UASIANUS COLCIUCUS. 
T„b Pheasant is stated to have been brought into this country from 
the date at rvhieh its introduction was supposed to have taken place is so for 7’^ 7* 
ticated record of the occurrence can be found. We are informed, however, m the fourth ed t.on of , 
that it is probable the Pheasant “was introduced by the Koman conquerors, who natura iMd the la 
Deer in Britain.” The name of this species is said to be derived from the Phasis, m Colchis, the banks 
which river were one of their native haunts before an attempt had been made to transport these handsome 
Pheasants are to he found in most of the English counties where protection is afforded them by an 
efficient staff of gamekeepers, also where the country is well wooded and the surrounding fields sufficiently 
cultivated to suit their requirements. In the Highlands greater attention is paid by sportsmen to 
-rouse-shooting and deer-stalking; the nature of the country is hut little fitted for rearing a large stoc o 
In the parts of the country where the most attractive and best-patronized battues are made, incredible 
numbers of young birds are reared in confinement and turned out into the adjoining woods and coverts when 
supposed fit to take care of themselves. The tremendous slaughter that has occasionally taken place at some 
of the “ hot corners,” as these spots are termed, during the battues has now and then raised the animosity o 
several ill-natured writers, who have vented their spite by giving a somewhat exaggerated aceount of the 
proceedings in the daily and weekly publications, and even at times in the comic papers. I never witnessed 
one of these big shoots, and have little inclination to say much on this subject, but fail to understand how 
any one taking an interest in real sport could assist in tbe destruction of bundreds of hand-reared birds as 
tame as farmyard chiekens. When the outlying nests of eggs liable to be robbed are taken, and the young 
hatehed and turned out in time to get used to the country, good sport may be obtained where a fair stock of 
wild birds is also kept up. 
In the summer of 1870 I ascertained quite by chance the manner in which these birds are occasionally 
reared in the north, and the arrangements entered into between the master and his keepers ; as they differ from 
the usual custom, it may not be out of place to refer to the subject. While in quest of specimens in the northern 
counties, I had gone, on a Sunday afternoon early in June, to lunch with a well-known sportsman and large 
land-owner whose woods and moors I was about to explore the following week. Having finished our repast, 
he proposed that we should go and have a look at the young Pheasants now being reared in a field close at 
hand; on reaching the spot a large number of coops were observed spread out over the open ground, and the 
head keeper soon made his appearance. Two of his assistants, armed with guns, concealed under some large 
trees in a hedge-row bordering the field, soon caught the master s eye and he at once gave orders for the 
weapons to be laid aside for the day ; an explanation from the keeper, however, changed those instructions 
