BIRDS
IN THE CALENDAR
BY F. G. AFLALO
LONDON: MARTIN SECKER
NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| January: The Pheasant | 11 |
| February: The Woodcock | 21 |
| March: The Woodpigeon | 33 |
| April: Birds in the High Hall Garden | 45 |
| May: The Cuckoo | 55 |
| June: Voices of the Night | 67 |
| July: Swifts, Swallows and Martins | 79 |
| August: The Seagull | 91 |
| September: Birds in the Corn | 103 |
| October: The Moping Owl | 113 |
| November: Waterfowl | 125 |
| December: The Robin Redbreast | 137 |
NOTE
These sketches of birds, each appropriateto one month of the twelve, originally appearedin The Outlook, to the Editor andProprietors of which review I am indebtedfor permission to reprint them in book form.
F. G. A.
Easter, 1914.
THE PHEASANT
THE PHEASANT
As birds are to be considered throughoutthese pages from any standpoint butthat of sport, much that is of interest inconnection with a bird essentially thesportsman's must necessarily be omitted. Atthe same time, although this gorgeouscreature, the chief attraction of social gatheringsthroughout the winter months, appealschiefly to the men who shoot and eat it, it isnot uninteresting to the naturalist with opportunitiesfor studying its habits underconditions more favourable than those encounteredwhen in pursuit of it with a gun.
In the first place, with the probable exceptionof the swan, of which something issaid on a later page, the pheasant standsalone among the birds of our woodlands inits personal interest for the historian. It isnot, in fact, a British bird, save by acclimatisation,at all, and is generally regardedas a legacy of the Romans. The time andmanner of its introduction into Britain are,it is true, veiled in obscurity. What we know,