Note 54 — WINDSOR FOREST.
Reading edition
Steevens quotes Pictæque volucres. Virg. Painted birds. Dryden.—Bowles.
Pope probably took the phrase from Paradise Lost, where the birds are described as spreading "their painted wings." In transferring the expression he overlooked the fact that the wings are not the part of the pheasant to which the epithet "painted" is especially applicable.