26 PHEASANTS 



to tip of tail, from six to seven feet. 

 The hen is under three feet long, of 

 which little more than a foot is devoted 

 to tail ; noticeably differing from other 

 hen pheasants in increased size and white 

 spotted mantle. 



In giving the Reeves place among our 

 pheasants of sport, stress must be laid on 

 the fact that he has no value in coverts 

 where any of the others will take up 

 their quarters. He stands quite apart 

 from the rest, a mountain dweller, a bird 

 of rough hill wood and rugged places, 

 and not a frequenter of swamp and river- 

 bank in the valley below. He has thus 

 no place in the game-coverts of the low 

 country, for there he will either wander 

 beyond the narrow confines of the home 

 allotted to him, or else stay at home to 

 drive away the other pheasants, and pro- 

 duce a race of infertile hybrids,^ with a 

 tendency to run for miles and a marked 



1 The rare instances of possibly fertile Reeves + 

 Colchicus hybrids have only a scientific interest, and 

 need not concern us here. 



