70 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



The cock pheasants generally begin to crow early in 

 March, which can be heard at a considerable distance at 

 this season. They have sometimes been known to come 

 into farm yards, and produce a breed with the common 

 hen, known by the name of pied pheasants, which are 

 a degenerate breed of birds when compared with the 

 wild pheasant. I have seen them in woods, now and 

 then, but was always requested by the owners not to 

 shoot them. You may therefore conclude that these 

 variegated coloured pheasants are only preserved to look 

 at. The ring-necked pheasant is a very handsome bird. 

 The old Duke of Marlborough and the late Lord 

 Berkeley had many of them in their covers, the latter 

 on his estate at Chunford Bridge. I have seen them in 

 other preserves, and shot them ; I also shot in Essex * a 

 very handsome mule bird, which I had stuffed and sent 

 to my father-in-law. The hen bird, when it has ceased 

 to propagate its species, gradually assumes the plumage 

 of the male, and at this period the gallantry of the 

 cock pheasant ceases, and she is treated with all the 

 indifference and coolness which old maids now and then 

 experience in this unfeeling world. 



Gamekeepers have a decided enmity towards these 



* In the montli of November 1859, the Marquis of Bristol enjoyed the 

 sports of the field in Doveton Hall Wood, with Earl Jermyn, Lord Alfred 

 Hervey, and Lord North. The supply of game being ample, the noble 

 marquis, though in his eighty-ninth year, quickly brought dovna. eight 

 and a half brace of pheasants in twenty shots, and after a long walk 

 over the farm, viewing past improvements and ordering fi-esh ones, 

 finished the day by relieving with his usual liberality, the aged and 

 deserving poor of the neighbourhood. The pleasure of the day was 

 much increased by the company of ladies visiting at Ickworth, with a 

 portion of the venerable marquis's fail- and amiable forty-five grand- 

 children. 



