OCTOBER. 



PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



BY GEORGE LINDESAY. 



ORIGINALLY a native of Asia Minor, the Common Pheasant is a 

 wonderful instance of the successful acclimatization of a foreign 

 bird in these Islands, and a most important inhabitant thereof has 

 he become. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are invested in 

 the preservation and multiplying of his species ; no small portion 

 of rural England is reserved for his residence ; and up to a certain 

 date his person is as sacred as that of a fox. After the ist of 

 October his importance increases ; and thousands of sportsmen, 

 armed with the latest and most quick-firing of breechloaders, 

 accompanied by keepers and beaters innumerable, march for his 

 destruction ; they violate with their hob-nailed boots and gaiters 

 the coverts that have hitherto formed his sure sanctuary, and poor 

 Phasianus Colchicus appears suddenly and simultaneously in every 

 poulterer's shop in the United Kingdom. 



Some idea may be formed of the wonderful increase in the 

 number of pheasants which has taken place in this country, from 

 the figures given in the Badminton Library volume on shooting, as 

 applying to some 10,000 acres of preserved land in Norfolk. On 

 this estate in 1825 the total bag was 89 pheasants to one gun ; in 



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