86 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



a semi-domestic state and was extremely abundant in 

 and around Calleva — probably at all the Roman stations. 

 It is probable that a few tame pheasants escaped from 

 time to time into the woods, also some may have been 

 turned out in the hope that they would become ac- 

 climatised, and we may suppose that a few of the most 

 hardy birds survived and continued the species until 

 later times; but for hundreds of years succeeding the 

 Romano-British period the pheasant must have been a 

 rarity in English woods. And a rarity it remains down 

 to this day in all places where it is left to itself, in 

 spite of the extermination of most of its natural enemies. 

 Unhappily for England the fashion or craze for this 

 bird became common among landowners in recent times 

 — the desire to make it artificially abundant so that an 

 estate which yielded a dozen or twenty birds a year to 

 the sportsman would be made to yield a thousand. This 

 necessitated the destruction of all the wild life supposed 

 in any way and in any degree to be inimical to the pro- 

 tected species. Worse still, men to police the woods, 

 armed with guns, traps, and poison, were required. 

 Consider what this means — men who are hired to pro- 

 vide a big head of game, privileged to carry a gim day 

 and night all the year round, to shoot just what they 

 please! For who is to look after them on their own 

 ground to see that they do not destroy scheduled species ? 

 They must be always shooting something; that is simply 

 a reflex effect of the liberty they have and of the gim 

 in the hand. Killing becomes a pleasure to them, and 

 with or without reason or excuse they are always doing 



