The Common Pheasant 205 



somest of all birds save one, been left to take care of him- 

 self he would most assuredly have become ere this as 

 extinct as the dodo. At any cost he must henceforth be 

 reared under artificial conditions, and to meet the growing 

 demand for eggs of different breeds more and more game- 

 farms appear to be coming into existence annually, many 

 of the best being in a position to book up their orders well 

 in advance. Of practicable and fancy sorts there are now 

 pheasants galore, so that a beginner is often undecided 

 which sort or sorts to rear in the face of discussions and 

 recommendations which are not always the outcome of ex- 

 perience. A Norfolk game-farm selects from a stock of 

 250,000 eggs which include the Mongolian-Chinese cross, 

 the half-bred Mongolian, the Park-necked, and other 

 much advocated breeds, and it is no unusual thing to find 

 such eggs advertised as yielding birds ' ' exceptionally 

 hardy and easy to rear, free from disease, grand flyers, 

 and non-strayers," while ' ' every egg (is) guaranteed fer- 

 tile " — some of which statements we are disposed to doubt. 

 Another growing industry is the preparation of pheasant 

 biscuits, foods, stay-at-home covert mixtures, and scent 

 destroyers ; while the country carpenter benefits by build- 

 ing sheds, mess-houses, brood-hen boxes, and coops. The 

 game preserver has to maintain a special staff for feeding 

 and watching the birds, repressing the vermin, etc. ; the 

 quantity of hard-boiled hens' eggs alone consumed in a 

 season representing a heavy item on his bill. Pheasant 

 shooting is general enough to take the lead in sporting 

 gunmanship, and it causes many thousands of pounds to 

 be distributed annually in a legitimate manner, as witness 

 the busy gunsmiths' shops, the employment of game- 

 keepers, loaders, beaters, stops, etc. The battue cannot 

 fairly be decried, because a good deal of training and not 

 a little dexterity is needed to bring down a couple of 

 rocketers with a right barrel and a left. You will hear a 

 youthful beater say to his neighbour as a bird falls, ' ' Up 

 goes a quid, pop goes a penny, and down comes three 

 bob ! " — which is equivalent to saying that a pheasant 

 costs a sovereign to rear, but only realises three shillings 

 for the city man's dinner table. I can prove that on some 



