THE PHEASANT 
The pheasant is in many respects a very 
curious bird. At the threshold of life, it 
exhibits, in common with some of its near 
relations, a precocity very unusual in its 
class ; and the readiness with which pheasant 
chicks, only just out of the egg, run about 
and forage for themselves, is astonishing to 
those unused to it. Another interesting 
feature about pheasants is the extraordinary 
difference in plumage between the sexes, a 
gap equalled only between the blackcock 
and greyhen and quite unknown in the 
partridge, quail and grouse. Yet every now 
and again, as if resentful of this inequality 
of wardrobe, an old hen pheasant will assume 
male plumage, and this epicene raiment 
indicates barrenness. Ungallant feminists 
have been known to cite the case of the 
" mule " pheasant as pointing a moral for the 
females of a more highly organised animal. 
The question of the pheasant's natural 
diet, more particularly where this is not 
liberally supplemented from artificial sources, 
brings the sportsman in conflict with the 
farmer, and a demagogue whose zeal 
occasionally outruns his discretion has even 
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