THE PHEASANT FAMILY 29 



up by hand as any of the commoner 

 varieties, the only fault imputed to them 

 being a tendency to stray to lower 

 grounds — a tendency quite at variance 

 with the accepted habits of the bird, and 

 one probably induced by lack of food or 

 stress of weather, under the unfavourable 

 conditions of a Highland winter. 



Mr. Millais has kindly sent the follow- 

 ing notes to the writer from his personal 

 observation of the Reeves pheasants. 



Scotland. The only places I know of where 

 they are quite wild are Balmacaan and Guisachan 

 in Inverness-shire. They were introduced to the 

 former place by the Earl of Seafield about 1870. 

 In the 'eighties they migrated to higher ground 

 and over to the highest fir woods on Guisachan. 

 There they increased rapidly, and the late Lord 

 Tweedmouth set apart one day every November 

 to shoot them. I shot there in November 1892, 

 and we killed about 30. 



I have elsewhere^ described and figured their 

 swift flight and method of stopping in mid-air 

 when going at full speed to alight on the top of a 

 Scots fir. There are now only a few at Balmacaan, 

 as they keep a big stock of pheasants, and it is 



^ The Field, Feb. 1896 ; reproduced in Tegetmeier on 

 '' Pheasants." 



