THE REARED PHEASANT 251 



for only the ease with which pheasants 

 can be artificially produced in any given 

 quantity, enables us to determine exactly 

 how many birds there shall be on the 

 ground in spring, without prejudice to 

 the autumn shooting. 



I am perfectly convinced in my own 

 mind that on many, many estates, of no 

 vast acreage but of a soil naturally con- 

 genial to game, where now partridges and 

 pheasants are expected to live the year 

 through cheek by jowl, in the unnatural 

 numbers that modern sport demands — 

 unnatural in no invidious sense, but simply 

 meaning beyond the common course of 

 nature — by far the best policy would be 

 to clean out the pheasants every year. 

 To many this will seem rather a desperate 

 expedient to suggest, yet much can be 

 said in its favour, and the bold policy 

 often justifies its adoption against the half 

 measures in which we are all so prone 

 to effect some compromise between the 

 logical conclusion of a matter and our 

 own personal feelings and prejudices. 



