NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 67 



writers on sport and natural history ; * to 

 most farmers, however, the remedy seems 

 worse than the disease ; and they would 

 rather put up with the uneaten wireworm 

 and leather-jacket than have their crops 

 lying close to coverts where pheasants 

 are extensively reared. 



On behalf of the pheasant it may truly 

 be said that his case is not fairly presented ; 

 the good he does is underground, its 

 effects indirect in their action and not 

 likely to be appreciated by the farmer, 

 while any mischief he may cause is only 

 too evident to unfriendly eyes. 



Nor would it be right to assume that 

 pheasants always do material damage ; on 

 the contrary, in reasonable numbers they 

 probably pay their footing on a farm with 

 something to spare by services rendered as 

 insecticides and weed-killers. But the 

 demands of modern covert shooting are 

 large, and often involve the presence of 



1 Cf. Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, Mr. J. G. Millais, and Mr. 

 W. Ogilvie Grant on the food of the pheasant and his 

 services to agriculture. 



