THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
295 
trees where the birds usually roost, and with a long taper pole strikes 
them fluttering to the ground. When poles are too short, the pocket 
fowling-piece is had recourse to; and though these vagabonds are often 
detected and punished, the poacher will remain a poacher as long as he 
lives. 
The pheasant is remarkably fond of brank, and nothing is better to 
allure them to a wood than to throw down heaps of the unthrashed straw 
and chaff of this grain in different parts of the same. A small field sowed 
with this grain near a preserve is very attractive, as they will fly a great 
way to obtain a feast of this kind of food, especially where beech-mast is 
scarce. 
Pheasantries are one of the ornaments of a nobleman or gentleman's 
pleasure-ground. They are formed like a vast cage of wire-work, with 
an opaque roof, and with fire flues under the floor for warming the apart¬ 
ment in winter. The exotic pheasants are mostly natives of China; and 
the principal are the peacock, golden and silver species, all elegant birds. 
Our domestic cock and hen belong to this genus; but they are of foreign 
extraction. 
The Cock of the wood, or mountain, is a large bird, weighing some¬ 
times above thirteen pounds. They are only met with on the mountains 
in the north of Scotland. They appear to be adapted to snowy regions ; 
for all the species are feathered to the toes. They live chiefly on the 
wild berries and seeds indigenous on the moors. The black-game, or 
heath-cock, is about one-third of the size of the preceding; and the white- 
game, or ptarmigan, weighing nearly one pound. In summer this bird 
is pale brown, but perfectly white in winter. Another species is the 
grouse, or red-game, larger anff heavier than the last. All these moor- 
game are objects which attract numerous parties of sportsmen to beat 
those inhospitable wilds in the autumn of every year; grouse-shoot¬ 
ing being a principal branch of the fowlers amusement, and so 
important is it esteemed, and so eagerly pursued, that some keen indi¬ 
viduals of fortune make a sort of campaign of the affair, having camp 
equipage, a carriage, and not only men-servants, but in some cases being 
even attended by their old fat female cooks. 
Those of the genus which follow have naked legs, namely —the Part - 
ridge, which is a well-known bird, and abundant over all the agricultural 
face of the country. Were it not that they nestle and hatch their 
numerous broods in standing corn, they could not possibly be so plentiful 
as they are known to be, considering the dreadful slaughter made of the 
coveys every 1st of September, and every week-day for months afterward. 
This gunnery, of itself, it might be imagined, would be enough to thin 
