THE PHEASANTS 53 



America are interested in raising them to stock their 

 private shooting grounds. 



In many of the States the close period is now about 

 to expire, and the pheasant will be shot with the other 

 game birds, but I doubt much if they will anywhere 

 survive in the Eastern States, save on the preserves. 

 The birds are large and noticeable on account of their 

 bright plumage, and although swift flyers they are not 

 very difficult marks; and in localities where there are 

 several shooters in each field the moment the season 

 opens, and often before, with dogs of all sorts, I do not 

 see how the pheasants can possibly escape. 



It would seem that the climate of our country, at least 

 that of most of the States, is even more favorable to 

 these beautiful fowls of the Orient, than that of England. 

 Since the birds have been successfully propagated 

 there for centuries (and although the shooting has 

 been excessive in England and on the Continent of 

 Europe) there is each year an abundance of birds in 

 the preserves, I see no reason why they should not 

 do well everywhere in America where there are clubs 

 or preserves. To-day I notice in a morning paper this 

 telegram from Paris : " Count Boni de Castellane enter- 

 tained King Carlos, of Portugal, at a shooting party 

 yesterday, at the Chateau Marais, near St. Cheron. 

 The bag includes four hundred and sixty-one pheas- 

 ants." Royalty everywhere is very fond of pheasants, 

 and of all shooting, for that matter, and the foregoing is 

 not an extraordinary bag, but large enough to show 

 how successfully the birds have been introduced and 

 propagated in other countries. 



The shooting clubs of the Eastern States have been 



