210 PHEASANTS 



and usually well-informed among the 

 members of our daily press : — ^ 



This aristocrat among birds does not pay great 

 attention to its young, and the majority of pre- 

 served pheasants are reared by hens or incubators. 



Many of the young ones die of over -eating. 

 Soups, pastries, and custards are among the 

 dainties prepared for them, and they eat 

 voraciously. When their baby days are over 

 they come to the call for food, and so are shot 

 in hundreds. This fact makes pheasant shooting 

 a more tame sport than it might otherwise be. 



It is somewhat dispiriting to think 

 that for every reader these pages on the 

 pheasant and his ways may chance to find, 

 thousands of people must solemnly as- 

 similate such stuff as the above ; for the 

 excerpt quoted is by no means unique, 

 being a fair enough sample of its kind, 

 only redeemed by its unconscious humour, 

 pleasantly tickling the imagination with 

 an inspiring mental picture of the * annual 

 battue.' 



But in this respect we still seem to live 

 in the dark ages. The alliterative attrac- 



1 Article in the Yorkshire Post, October 1, 1912. 



