202 PHEASANTS 



With regard to the putting of pheasant eggs 

 into partridge nests my recollection is that Mr. 

 Tegetmeier told me that the period of incubation 

 was the same in both partridges and pheasants, 

 but it is a long time ago, so I will not swear posi- 

 tively. But whatever the period may be, I started 

 the experiment after hearing what he said, and it 

 seems to have been successful, so I must leave it 

 at that. I never heard of eggs being left in a 

 nest unhatched, at least not in any way which 

 would be considered unusual. 



From my own experience, I can bear 

 witness how useful the wild pheasant can 

 be on a small and unambitious shoot. I 

 have the shooting over a dozen farms in 

 grey Galloway, a land of rounded hills 

 rolling down to the sea. The fields are 

 large, divided by stone walls, the average 

 area under cultivation being perhaps one- 

 fourth of the whole : the woods are small 

 and scanty in number, but all over the 

 ground there are scattered patches of 

 what my keeper terms roughness, where 

 a steep bank or an outcrop of the Silurian 

 rock forbids the passage of the plough, 

 and the heugh or knowe is covered with 

 a tangle of bracken, briar, whin, and sloe. 



