PHEASANT 715 
the poacher does not like visiting coverts that he knows to be 
effectively preserved, and that coverts containing a great stock of 
Pheasants, whose rearing has cost a considerable sum of money, are 
probably the most effectively preserved. As to the second objection, 
it is to be observed that what constitutes sport is in great measure 
a matter of individual taste, and that the reasonable limit of a 
sportsman’s ‘‘ bag” is practically an unknown quantity. One man 
likes shooting a Pheasant rising at his feet or sprung by his spaniels, 
as it flies away from him through the trees and is still labouring to 
attain its full speed ; another prefers shooting one that has mounted 
to its greatest height, and, assisted perhaps by the wind, is travers- 
ing the sky at a pace that almost passes calculation. If skill has to 
be considered in the definition of sport, there can be no doubt as to 
which of these cases most requires it. In regard to cruelty—that 
is, the proportion of birds wounded to those killed—there seems to 
be little difference, for the temptation to take “long shots” is about 
equal in either case. The Pheasant whose wing is broken by the 
charge, if at a great height, is often killed outright by tbe fall, 
whereas, if nearer the ground, it will often make good its escape by 
running, possibly to recover, or more possibly to die after lingering 
in pain for a longer or shorter time. On the other hand, high- 
flying Pheasants, having their vital parts more exposed, are often 
hit in the body, but not hard enough to bring them down, though 
the wound they have received proves mortal, and the velocity at 
which they are travelling takes them beyond reach of retrieval. 
Formerly Pheasants were taken in snares or nets, and by 
hawking ; but the crossbow was also used, and the better to obtain 
a “sitting shot,” for with that weapon men had not learnt to ‘ shoot 
flying” ; dogs appear to have been employed in the way indicated 
by the lines under an engraving by Hollar, who died in 1677 :— 
“The Feasant Cocke the woods doth most frequent, 
Where Spaniells spring and pearche him by the sent.” 4 
The use of firearms has put an end to the older practices, and the 
gun is now the only mode of taking Pheasants recognized as 
legitimate. 
Of the many other species or local races of Phasianus, two only 
can be dwelt upon here. These are the Ring-necked Pheasant of 
China, P. torquatus, easily known by the broad white collar, whence 
it has its name, as well as by the pale greyish-blue of its upper 
wing-coverts and the light buff of its flanks, and the P. versicolor of 
Japan, often called the Green Pheasant from the beautiful tinge of 
1 Quoted by the writer (Broderip ?) of the article ‘‘Spaniel” in the Penny 
Cyclopedia. The lines throw light on the asserted Welsh practice mentioned in 
a former note. 
