PHEASANTS 289 



Consequently, it is affirmed that birds can not only reduce 

 their scent at will, but wholly suppress it, for a time at any rate. 

 They can only do this when motionless, and this seems a 

 sufficient explanation of why all birds are not found on the 

 nests by foxes and vermin. The greater difficulty seems to be 

 to discover why so many are found ; but as even Jove sometimes 

 nods, it may be that the partridge and the pheasant does so 

 too, and the slightest movement appears to be fatal when scent 

 means death. One thing it is difficult to explain : How is it 

 that the breath does not betray the presence of the game ? The 

 otter can be hunted down the river by the bubbles of breath 

 that rise from him. The submerged moorhen and wounded 

 duck can be unerringly found by the dog in the same way 

 and by the same means. Is it possible that birds can sub- 

 sist without breathing for periods that would be fatal to 

 ourselves? The author expresses no opinion, but there is 

 a total absence of scent upon occasion to account for; this 

 entire absence is rare either during incubation or at other 

 times. 



Those who think there is no advantage to be derived from 

 removing the eggs into safety during incubation, say that there 

 is no danger because there is no scent. Yet one of them at 

 least, namely Mr. Millard, advises the use of Renardine to 

 prevent the danger which scent causes. 



Mr. Alington, the author of Partridge Driving, describes 

 how Renardine, the preparation in which Mr. Millard is 

 interested, was effective in keeping off foxes from the partridges' 

 nests one year, but was actually the attraction to them the 

 next. Mr. Holland Hibbert had a similar experience. Mr. 

 J. Geddies, of Collin, Dumfries, wrote to one of the papers re- 

 counting similar misfortunes. There have been plenty of letters 

 written by keepers giving contrary views, but probably the 

 papers have exercised a wise discretion in not publishing them. 

 It would be unusual if the makers could not get testimonials 

 from a number of their clients, and they certainly would not 

 ask those to state their opinions who were dissatisfied. 



We have to remember that Messrs. Gilbertson & Pages' 

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