BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



where they are regularly shot. Sport is a 

 great educator. Foxes certainly, and hares 

 probably, run the faster for being hunted. 

 Indeed the fox appears to have acquired 

 its pace solely as the result of the chase, 

 since it does not figure in the Bible as a 

 swift creature. The genuine wild pheasant 

 in its native region, a little beyond the 

 Caucasus, is in all probability a very different 

 bird from its half-domesticated kinsman in 

 Britain. I have been close to its birthplace, 

 but never even saw a pheasant there. We 

 are told, on what ground I have been unable 

 to trace, that the polygamous habit in 

 these birds is a product of artificial environ- 

 ment ; but what is even more likely is that 

 the true wild pheasant of Western Asia 

 (and not the acclimatised bird so-called in 

 this country) trusts much less to its legs 

 than our birds, which have long since learnt 

 that there is safety in running. Moreover, 

 though it probably takes wing more readily, 

 it is doubtful whether it flies as fast as the 

 pace, something a little short of forty miles 

 an hour, that has been estimated as a com- 

 mon performance in driven birds at home. 

 14 



