68 PHEASANTS 



pheasants on his ground in such numbers 

 as the farmer can only reckon as quite 

 unreasonable from his point of view. It 

 is then that theories about nice balance of 

 loss and gain can only be irritating to the 

 sufferer in face of hard fact ; for when 

 pheasants gather in their hundreds to the 

 one field where good things seem to them 

 to be going to waste, there can only result 

 to the farmer such direct loss to his 

 pocket, as the indirect benefits of a whole 

 hecatomb of slaughtered grubs would do 

 little to cover. 



Except perhaps in the case of winter 

 wheat, which remains as a standing 

 temptation, the bulk of the mischief is 

 usually done in a short time. Fields of 

 new-sown or new-sprouting wheat and 

 barley, and grain between the ripening and 

 the reaping, are only at the mercy of the 

 wandering pheasant for at most a few 

 weeks of the year. Besides these cereals, 

 among which at these critical periods of 

 their growth a horde of pheasants can play 

 havoc in a few days, patches of potatoes, 



