PREFACE 



CONVICTION that the ringneck pheasant is certain enor- 

 mously to increase in popularity both for sporting and food 

 purposes, combined with the fact that there exists no com- 

 prehensive treatment of the methods employed in this country 

 in the breeding and shooting of this bird, furnishes my excuse for writing 

 this book. 



The conviction is due in large part to the recent liberalization of the 

 laws in several states permitting captive-bred pheasants to be killed in 

 any manner at any time, under certain reasonable restrictions. To this 

 may be added the fact that a method has been devised which makes 

 possible the shooting of captive-bred birds on a comparatively small 

 preserve without driving off the birds that escape the guns. 



The present work was begun merely as a pamphlet on the breeding 

 of the ringneck, but I became so interested in my subject and so con- 

 vinced that fuller treatment might be worth while that the scheme of the 

 book was enlarged to include the presentation of the essential facts having 

 to do with the breeding, shooting, preserving and marketing of the ring- 

 neck. Special attention has been given to the organization of clubs for 

 pheasant shooting, for it is believed that it is, in large measure, through 

 this action that the pheasant is destined to serve sport to an extent that 

 is now little realized. 



The overflow from club and private preserves almost invariably re- 

 sults in the stocking of public covers in the neighborhood, so that the 

 sportsman who can afford neither club nor private preserve is pretty cer- 

 tain to be the gainer where either of these is established. 



It is felt that the book treats its subject in a much more comprehen- 

 sive, sequential and detailed manner than has before been attempted in 

 this country. 



In the course of a report on the pheasant made in 1913 to the Massa- 

 chusetts legislature by the commissioners on fisheries and game of that 

 state, these words are used: 



