286 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



are left to lay) to protect the eggs from being 

 stolen to sell to other aviaries, that may militate 

 against the wild breed, and so may the mihealthful 

 natm'c of some soils; but as men canH lay their 

 own eggs, and the hen pheasant is the only bird 

 that can furnish the required hrood, how foolish it is 

 to destroy the source whence tlie best eggs come ! 

 You can have only a certain or limited number 

 of birds in an aviary, whereas a man with a 

 large manor can have as many as his acres and 

 wilds will heathfully carry; and if the soil is 

 not favourable for pheasants, he can take better 

 eggs from his own wilds than any he can buy, 

 and breed them up in addition to those in the 

 aviaries, leaving the old birds" to help his stock 

 if they can with a second nest. I have des- 

 canted on this matter before, but it cannot be 

 too much impressed on the sj)orting reader. 

 Wlien, as a boy, I began shooting, a bad par- 

 tridge season was scarcely or never known. Now 

 bad seasons follow each other. I have seen, in 

 August, pairs of old birds packed together, and 

 known of coveys the number of whose young daily 

 diminished. If in August you sluing a covey, 

 and in flying over the standing corn you see 



