24 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



result that would now certainly occur if they were left 

 to look after their own interests. 



The great charm of a pheasant is that you may 

 rear him by hand and turn him, when young, into 

 your woods, as tame as any chicken poult ; but 

 nevertheless, after a short space of liberty, he be- 

 comes, and remains for his life, as wild and crafty 

 and gun-shy as any bird well can be. 



It is, indeed, difficult to realise that the cunning 

 and gorgeously feathered cock pheasant of December, 

 who necessitates so much manoeuvring to drive him 

 to the gun, and such good marksmanship to stop his 

 strong, dashing flight, when properly driven, can be 

 the same bird as the one of draggled plumage and 

 poor appearance that fed from the hand in front of a 

 hencoop in July.* 



Nor are pheasants such very easy birds to rear 

 and preserve, however much the care and money 

 devoted to their production and guardianship. Often 

 as not a pheasant is ' an object of anxiety and expense 

 from the day he is hatched to the day he is missed in 

 the open as he flies gaily off to be murdered in a 



* The pheasants that strut about your flower garden, or feed on 

 the stubbles within a few yards of the high road as you drive past, 

 are not really tame. I guarantee you find them wild enough when 

 you want to shoot them ; for no bird scents actual danger quicker 

 than a pheasant. 



