222 PHEASANTS 



entirely from wild-gathered eggs, as hardly 

 ever worth while on a large scale — for the 

 reasons given above, and others sufficiently 

 indicated when discussing the pheasant on 

 partridge ground at the end of this chapter 

 — we have still two regular sources of 

 supply, the game -farm and our own 

 penned birds. 



Many good keepers have some distrust 

 of eggs from game-farms, often based on 

 unhappy experiences in former years. 

 But of late strenuous rivalry among the 

 many game-farms which have sprung into 

 existence since the development of modern 

 covert shooting, has practically eliminated 

 all careless and casual competitors from 

 the scene. Like Caesar's wife, the modern 

 game-farm must be above suspicion, for 

 it could not hope to survive without 

 maintaining a good reputation among its 

 clients, and so all the approved firms in 

 the trade may be confidently relied on to 

 do all that lies in their power to satisfy 

 their customers, if only in their own 

 interests. 



