46 NATURAL HISTORY. 
This bird, though so beautiful to the eye, is not less deli- 
cate when served up to the table. Its flesh is considered as 
the greatest dainty ; and when the old physicians spoke of the 
wholesomeness of any viands, they made their comparison 
with the flesh of the pheasant. In the woods the hen-phea- 
sant lays from eighteen to twenty eggs in a season ; but in a 
domestic state she seldom lays above ten. Its fecundity when 
wild is sufficient to stock the forest; its beautiful plumage 
adorns it; and its flesh retains a higer flavour from its unlimit- 
ed freedom. 
The pheasant, when full grown, seems to feed indifferently 
upon every thing that offers. It is said by a French writer, 
that one of the king’s sportsmen shooting at a parcel of crows, 
that were gathered round a dead carcass, to his great surprize 
upon coming up, found that he had killed as many pheasants 
as crows. It is even asserted by some, that such is the car- 
nivorous disposition of this bird, that when several of them are 
put together in the same yard, if one of them happens to fall 
sick, or seems to be pining, that all the rest will fall upon, 
kill, and devour it. 
There is a bastard pheasant which is of a mixed breed be- 
tween the pheasant and the cock. The back is reddish, mot- 
tled with brown and white; the lower parts ash-coloured, 
spotted with brown. There is also a variety supposed to be 
produced between the turkey and the pheasant, and on that 
account called the turkey pheasant. It is, like the former, of 
a mingled colour. 
There are about eight or ten foreign birds known of this 
genus. Among these the painted, or golden pheasant of China, 
is most conspicuous for its beauty. It is less than the common 
pheasant, not being more than two feet nine inches long. 
The general colour of the plumage is crimson ; on the head 
is a beautiful yellow crest, the feathers of which appear like 
sdk. The back and rump are yellow ; the scapulars are blue, 
the quills brown marked with yellow ; the tail is twenty-three 
inches in length, and the colour is cliesnut, mottled with 
black. The hen is materially different, the general colour of 
her plumage being brow'n. It appears a hardy bird, and has 
been known to propagate with our common pheasant. 
The argus pheasant is a magnificent bird. It receives its 
name from the epulis being marked with eyes resembling those 
in the peacock’s train. The top and hind part of the head and 
neck is a changeable blue; the back dusky, marked with 
reddish brown, the throat and breast a dull orange. It is the 
size of a cock turkey, and the two middle feathers of the tail 
are three feet in length. This bird, as well as the former, and 
