PHEASANTS 275 



present desire to cross with birds that have white wing coverts, 

 namely the Mongolian race, is liable to mix colours very much 

 more. However beautiful a pure white may be and is, it has 

 a very bad effect on the colours of fowls and ducks. White 

 crossing has produced barndoor fowls of every hideous mix- 

 ture, and the farm-pond duck with its washed-out feathering, 

 which when compared with that of the Rouen and the wild 

 duck suffers by the contrast. The Prince of Wales pheasant, 

 the Mongolian, and even the Japanese versicolor pheasants, 

 are handsome birds, and may be desirable as pure races, but 

 any intermixtures of blood can only take place with the risk of 

 spoiling the glory of the cock pheasant's plumage. The same 

 remark may be applied to crosses with the Reeves pheasant, 

 which are much more difficult to bring about, because the cross- 

 bred birds only appear to come to maturity in their third year, 

 so that there is little danger ; for sportsmen want early maturity 

 before all things in the pheasant pens and coverts, where an 

 immature cock bird would spell disaster. 



The system of penning pheasants as we employ it came to 

 us from France ; without its aid we never should have succeeded 

 in making the enormous bags that are now the fashion. One 

 thousand birds in the day are now more often killed than 50 

 were a hundred years ago, and there are some places where the 

 host tries to quadruple the 1000, and nearly succeeds. But the 

 author finds that the general opinion is that 1000 really tall, 

 fast birds is enough for anybody, and that when more are killed, 

 and especially when great numbers are desired, the birds are not 

 usually driven in a fashion to afford those difficult marks that 

 are above all desired by both bad and good marksmen. 



The general way of starting to preserve pheasants is to buy 

 eggs from game farmers. The usual price is from $ to ros. 

 a hundred, according to the time of year. The early eggs are 

 much the most valuable, and for them is the most demand. But 

 eggs early in April run many risks that those of early May 

 escape. That is to say, the eggs may be frosted in the pens, and 

 the chicks may suffer from a combination of cold and wet, when 

 either one or the other alone would not injure. At the same 



