abundant, and the ample store of wild fruits and berries which nature has every where provided, render this their time of feasting. As winter approaches, they are reduced to less various fare, and resort to the fallows in search of roots, and to the turnip fields; and Mr Selby has remarked, that the roots of the bulbous crowfoot (Ranunculus bulbosus), and of the garden tulip, are both much sought after. The latter they omit no opportunity of obtaining, and which, by means of the bill and feet, they are almost certain to reach, however deep it may be buried. In extensive preserves, during this season, they are always regularly fed, and know the feeding hour and call of the keeper correctly, and by this means they are prevented from straying. The most successful and favourite food at these times is peas or grain. In the south of England, the breeding of pheasants for the supply of preserves, is carried on to a great extent, and on this account the bird can almost never be seen except in an artificial state; for being turned out of the nursing-houses early in the season, and fed and nursed in the covers for the winter's batteau, they are sluggish and lazy, quite fearless, and can afford any thing but sport to one accustomed to follow game in their wild and natural haunts. The slaughter at these shooting meetings is sometimes so immense, that the game can scarcely be made use of, and they were formerly much more wanton on the Continent than in England.

In perhaps the largest game establishment of modern days, and conducted in a most magnificent scale, that of Chantilli, 54,878 head of various game were killed in one year; and during a period of thirty-two years, 12,304 is the lowest number that was obtained. In the same course of years the number of pheasants killed was 86,193, averaging nearly 2700 yearly. In Germany, there were some parties scarcely inferior in massacre. A party of ten in Bohemia are said to have killed in two days, within a limited extent, above 950 pheasants, besides about 1200 partridges; and in another part of Germany, twelve sportsmen, if such a name is applicable to them, killed in one day of fourteen hours, 39,000 head of game, of which pheasants bore a proportion. At the Christmas batteau in England, 800 to 1000 head of game is a frequent daily amount, the greater share of which are hares and pheasants. From these some idea may be formed of the extent to which breeding and turning out is carried.

The pheasant is subject to considerable variety of plumage. Like most of the gallinaceous birds, as we have already mentioned, the female assumes the plumage of the male, and those in this state should be killed or expelled the preserves, as with the livery, they assume a disposition at war with their own race. They vary in being mottled with white, or becoming entirely of that colour; and Temminck is of opinion that in such cases the change is owing to disease in some of their functions, and mentions that persons who have long had the charge of a pheasanty, have known the white birds resume all their former brilliancy of plumage, after continuing for years in the albino state. There is another very beautiful variety which of late years has become extremely common in Scotland, and has received the appellation of Bohemian Pheasant. The ground shade of the plumage becomes of a rich green cream colour, but the head retains its glossy tint, and the black tips and markings on the breast and belly, and back, appear even more conspicuous than in the ordinary state. This state may occur from a modification of the same causes which influence the change in the white varieties.

The pheasant sometimes also crosses with the domestic fowl. Temminck mentions this as requiring great attention to accomplish; but where poultry is kept upon the borders of a wood abounding with pheasants, it occasionally happens, and would do so perhaps more frequently, if favourable opportunities occurred; a specimen in our own possession, exhibiting all the mixed characters, was procured in a wild state. M. Temminck also records a solitary instance of a mule between the female common pheasant and male golden pheasant, which exhibited a curious but splendid mixture; all his endeavours, however, to procure a second specimen were ineffectual. The common pheasant breeds also freely with the ringed bird, and the offspring is productive. This has been considered by many as a proof that these two birds were identical, but in the whole of this order, and its corresponding one among quadrupeds, this law has a much more extended modification, and can scarcely be taken as a criterion except in very opposite instances.

We shall now examine another very beautiful pheasant, very much allied in form to that we have now been describing. It is

DIARD'S PHEASANT.

Phasianus versicolor.- VIEILLOT.

PLATE XIV. MALE. - XV. FEMALE.

Le Faisan versicolor, Phasianus versicolor, Vieillot, Gallerie des Oiseaux, pl. 205. -Теmminck, Planches Coloriées. Male, pl. 486. Female, pl. 493.

THIS beautiful pheasant was first noticed by M. Diard, who procured a specimen which had been imported to Batavia, and is first figured and described by M. Vieillot in his Gallery, and since by M. Temminck, who has also added the portrait of the female, both of which have been used for the accompanying illustrations. It is a native of Japan, frequenting the woods, according to Seiboldt, and possessing the manners and habits of the common bird. Diard's pheasant is nearly of the size and form of the common naturalised breed, but the tail is somewhat shorter in proportion. The naked space of the cheeks is bright scarlet. The head and upper part of the neck are of a golden green, with violet reflections; the throat and fore part of the neck of a lively blue; lower part of the neck, breast, and upper parts of the body, of a deep green, with a