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 whig 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 
