224 The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
“accounts. 35 The instructions for scrying it, given in 
Wynkyn de Worde’s Bohe of Kervynge, are that the legs 
and wings are to be lifted the same as those of hens, and 
that no sauce is to be used with it, but only salt and 
powder of ginger. 
According to Andrew© (Noble Lyfe , part ii. in. 4), the 
pheasant was sometimes taken by the simple yet in¬ 
genious device of painting a representation of the bird on 
a cloth, and holding it in view of the quarry. This pro¬ 
ceeding so attracted the attention of the bird, that another 
fowler was able to approach from the rear and throw a 
net over it. Considering the great want of likeness 
prevalent in portraits of this period, it is more than 
probable that if the pheasant was attracted at all it was- 
by curiosity, to discover what new species of fowl had 
come into the neighbourhood. This same writer informs 
us that— 
“ thys byrde morneth sore in fowle weder, and hidetk liym from the 
rayne under the bushes. Towarde the morning and towardes night,, 
than commeth he out of the busshe, and is oftentimes so taken, and he 
putieth his hede in the ground, and he weneth that all his boddy is 
hyden and his flessh is very light and good to disjest.” (Bahees Book , 
eel. Furnivall, p. 101.) 
Ben Jonson, in his enumeration of the various luxu¬ 
ries which Penshurst afforded for its owner’s entertain¬ 
ment, writes 
“ The tops 
Fertile of wood, Ashore and Sydneys copp’s, 
To crown thy open table, doth provide 
The purpled pheasant with the speckled side: 
The painted partridge lies in ev’ry field, 
And for thy mess is willing to be killed.” 
(The Forest ) 
The Argus Pheasant is a native of Sumatra. A variety 
of the pheasant mentioned by Marco Polo may possibly 
be this argus: “ Pheasants are found in it [Thibet] that 
