THE PHEASANT 



rivalry between pheasant and fox, or (as I 

 rather suspect) between those who shoot 

 the one and hunt the other, admits of only 

 one answer. The fox eats the pheasant ; the 

 pheasant is eaten by the fox. This not very 

 complex proposition may read like an excerpt 

 from a French grammar, but it is the epitome 

 of the whole argument. It is just possible 

 we have no actual evidence to go on 

 that under such wholly natural conditions 

 as survive nowhere in rural England the two 

 might nourish side by side, the fox taking 

 occasional toll of its agreeably flavoured 

 neighbours, and the latter, we may suppose, 

 their wits sharpened by adversity, gradually 

 devising means of keeping out of the robber's 

 reach. In the artificial environment of a 

 hunting or shooting country, however, the fox 

 will always prove too much for a bird dulled by 

 much protection, and the only possible modus 

 vivendi between those concerned must rest on 

 a policy of give and take that deliberately 

 ignores the facts of the case. 



More interesting, on academic grounds at 

 any rate, is the process of education notice- 

 able in pheasants in parts of the country 

 13 



