THE PHEASANT FAMILY 15 



to be classed among our game birds. 

 The question is not perhaps one of any 

 general interest, and may seem to have 

 been given more space than its importance 

 would warrant, for most of us will rather 

 make the best of what pheasants we have 

 than *fly to others that we wot not of.' 

 Still it is as well that good cause should 

 be shown for deliberate omissions from 

 the commonly accepted lists of pheasants 

 suitable for sport in this country, and 

 further a word in season might be of 

 service to any contemplating the costly 

 experiment of introducing new birds to 

 stock their coverts, to whom the writers 

 already mentioned could only prove mis- 

 leading. 



In the latest work on pheasants, pub- 

 lished within the last few months,^ the 

 Amherst pheasant is termed 'a most use- 

 ful addition to the coverts,' being given 

 together with Soemerring's and the 

 Reeves, as suitable to cross with our 

 native stock, the former by way of 



^ Pheasants in Covert and Aviary , by F. J. Barton (1912). 



