‘Household. Book’ of the fifth Earl of Northumberland (151.2),
and from the time of the Tudor monarchs, Pheasants are
specified with Partridges in the statutes for the protection of
game.
In Scotland, according to Mr. R. Gray,* the first mention
of the Pheasant occurs in an Act dated June 8, 1594, in the
reign of James VI., a great protector of all kinds of game.
In the aforesaid year he “ ordained that quhatsumever person
or persones at ony time hereafter sail happen,, to slay deir,
harts, phesants, foulls, partricks, or uther wyld foule quhatsumever,
ather with gun, crace bow, dogges, halks, orgirnes,
or be uther ingine quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting
with ony gun therein,” &c., &c., shall pay the usual “ hun-
dreth punds,” &c. I t is now, generally distributed in suitable
localities from Sutherland to Wigtownshire, and in the
neighbourhood of Loch Lomond it is occasionally seen on
the mountain-sides as far up as 1,200 feet. Introduced into
Lewis in the: Outer Hebrides about I fifteen years ago by Sir
James Matheson, it has become fairly established ;there, as
well as in Islay, where it grows to a large size. The east
side of Scotland does not, as a rule, appear to be so well
suited to it, but,, it has thriven in the coverts near Banff
belonging to the Earl of Fife, s
As regards Ireland, the date of its introduction is unknown.
Giraldus Cambrensis, in his ‘ Topographia Hibemica *
1183-1186), expressly states rihait in /bis day there -ssere
neither - Pheasants nor Partridges ; .andrRanulphus. Higden,
who died at an advanced : age about 1363, mentions dn-^his
‘ Polyehronicon/‘ perdices ’ and,‘ phasiani ’ as being-.ribsent
from Ireland, f About two centuries-^ later,, in ‘ A Brife
Description of Ireland -made in* the. yeere>:iT589 . by rR&beM
Payne,’ is the following:—“ There-he^great store-,ofiyrild
swannes, cranes,- phesantes, partriges, heathcocksy-plouers
greene anft^gray, curlewes' woodcockes, raylesf quailes,, and
all other fowles,.much more plentifull than in/England!”
JVnes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 till 1603,
* Birds of «the Wes.t 'Oft Se6
, t Harming, M g l, pp. 437 and 4£&. r
observes that “ they have such plenty of pheasants, as I
have known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much
more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce. ^^pBescr.
of Ireland, ii. p. 368.) " Smith seemsjfco have imagined that
Pheasants were indigenous-to the island, as in his History of
Cork it is remarked :-S^They arè' now' [1749j' ihde'ed very
rare, most of our .woods being -cut down.” At the preseht
day it is generally distributed'dhroughout the wooded parts
of the island. '
Up ’to'the- end of ther -last'century our Pheasant had
deviated'-but little, if indeed at %H, from the typical5
P. colchicus ; • but -''about that time -‘the 'introduction* of the*
Chinese Ring-ne'cked nhmmen-ced. The
males of this hârdy-spëciés,- although smaller in size than
the ' English "birds,': are exceedingly ■ pugnacious,' - Î and- per-1
haps also thW beauty óf ' their plunfage rendered^bem pehWD
liarly 'attractive to the hêhsv;'TiAt ' all1 events'/' in>a po-lyga-v
mous bird dike**the -Pheasant, '%hey rapiâlÿ-effected -^-considerable’alteraties?'
in the brééd,"and-'at the présent-d&y it'
is difficult tó -find' birds without séinéîHi*ac'é>¥f Jhybridi^m,
Sóme offsprings ©f-the first creiir are,-indeed',’scarcely to, he-
distinguished from th#$hinese bird ; -and7although many-of
the features of that* sp’é'èiës are gradually-bred 'out,cyët the
characteristic - white*- -ringt-is riong^retainedi - The beautiful1
Japanese Pheasantf hasj also7héén-introduced
in small numbers ;' 'S*©mé^magnifïceht’ hybridsi beihg-- the
result, although'the influerfceiP of cross héve 'hot proved-
lasting. Exemptés- óf thé splendid Tong-tailed P. ^reéveffl
have also héén'turned'out, and fin * solieri di&tricts dhiéy-havé-
saCceeded*vetfy,u%îlV as many as si^ty-hairing been shot iria
single season in thé^edvefs bf ’Lörd Tweédmoiïfch’ inaInvêt-'-
ness-shirè.- 'Lord Lilford, '^KeT1 presented tó' the' British
Museum a -fine* male hybrid shot iù':8üs'séxdn December/
1879, says-that 'they have:,îdone fairly in North’amptbhshirey
but considers that in this-' !couhtry a wide- ;raiigë *of /bilb
coverts WoiffiP' he Hrhdst -suitable- ->th ’-thenrf whilst for ƒ thé :
tabled he thinks they* aie AdisrifiBt%-linperio-rMd-óur common
bird-.-' Thu' So-called (Bohemian^jlîeâsâht* iî^ merelyvol.
u n . o