202 PHEASANTS 



With regard to the putting of pheasant eggs 

 into partridge nests — my recollection is that Mr. 

 Tegetmeier told me that the period of incubation 

 was the same in both partridges and pheasants, 

 but it is a long time ago, so I will not swear posi- 

 tively. But whatever the period may be, I started 

 the experiment after hearing what he said, and it 

 seems to have been successful, so I must leave it 

 at that. I never heard of eggs being left in a 

 nest unhatched, at least not in any way which 

 would be considered unusual. 



From my own experience, I can bear 

 witness how useful the wild pheasant can 

 be on a small and unambitious shoot. I 

 have the shooting over a dozen farms in 

 grey Galloway, a land of rounded hills 

 rolling down to the sea. The fields are 

 large, divided by stone walls, the average 

 area under cultivation being perhaps one- 

 fourth of the whole : the woods are small 

 and scanty in number, but all over the 

 ground there are scattered patches of 

 what my keeper terms roughness, where 

 a steep bank or an outcrop of the silurian 

 rock forbids the passage of the plough, 

 and the heugh or knowe is covered with 

 a tangle of bracken, briar, whin, and sloe. 



