RING-NECKED PHEASANT. 
191 
velty; and Heliogobalus in his ostentation is said to 
have fed the lions of his menagerie with them. The 
Pheasant may be said to have been originally re- 
stricted to the Asiatic continent, extending over the 
greater part of it, and reaching to China and the 
confines of Tartary. Now, however, it is much 
more extended, and its facility of domestication, and 
hardy constitution, suit it for almost every country. 
It is even abundant in Siberia, where the inhabitants 
adorn their caps with its plume ; and one of the 
Governors of St Helena succeeded in almost natu- 
ralizing it to the more barren soil of that island. 
In the greater part of Europe it is completely na- 
turalized ; and we have heard of its introduction to 
North America, where it trill certainly thrive. We 
are not aware of any similar attempt having been 
made in either Africa or New Holland. In the 
latter we should have little doubt of its success ; but 
the climate of Africa we should consider as one of 
the most unpropitious for its establishment. We 
are in greater uncertainty of the time of its intro- 
duction into Great Britain than of its original dis- 
covery. They are mentioned in Echard’s History 
of England as worth only 4d. in 1299. Two hun- 
dred made part of the great feast of Archbishop 
Neville, about the middle of 1400; and in the re- 
gulations of the fifth Earl of Northumberland, begun 
in 1512, we find their value increased to 16^d. each. 
Upon the Scottish border and high Cheviot range 
