ii. PHEASANT REARING (PART /) 21 



fully, and once more sacrifices her young to a reckless 

 disregard of their helplessness. 



From careful observation, I am confident that the 

 wild hen pheasants rarely bring an average of two 

 birds each to the gun oftener but one even when 

 an estate is favourable to game, and on which they 

 are permitted to nest without interference. 



The so-called wild pheasants of these days are, 

 however, merely wild in that they have strayed from 

 some preserve in which they have been assisted to 

 increase by artificial rearing. 



Such wild pheasants would be exterminated in 

 two or three years, did not a fresh import of tame- 

 bred ones supply their place ; as the prowling gunner, 

 the hawk, or weasel, would soon make short work of 

 the hen birds and their young on open land, or on the 

 small freeholds that are but stocked with the game 

 that strays off adjacent estates whereon it is pre- 

 served. In the days of primitive flint guns, and 

 when much larger portions of England were un- 

 cultivated or forested than is now the case, the 

 pheasants killed were reared entirely in a wild state, 

 and were not then easy to find, or, when found, 

 to kill, with the sporting weapons of the time ; yet, 

 though the birds had much in their favour, they 

 never, like partridges, appear to have existed in fairly 

 large numbers. 



