50 Sporting Notes in the Far East. 



the water, and when knocked over, falling dead on the opposite 

 bank. In severe weather, a constant repetition of this is most 

 trying for your retriever. 



I recollect one winter, being up above Kah-shing where it snowed 

 hard for a whole fortnight ; and sometimes in one day's sport, my 

 poor little retriever spaniel would have to swim these big half 

 frozen creeks, a dozen times or more, and generally with a big 

 2^ Ibs. pheasant in his mouth. These pheasants in mid- 

 winter when in full plumage, will carry a lot of shot ; and are al- 

 together much hardier birds, than their English bred brethren. 



In cold and severe weather, when food in the paddies is scarce ; 

 pheasants at feeding time, appear to haunt the precincts of the 

 villages, picking up what sustenance they can from the offal heaps 

 outside the houses : I fancy that this accounts in a great measure, 

 for the little fear they appear to have, of " John " and his family. 

 But for total disregard of the natives ; commend me to a Japanese 

 pheasant, in some of the still undisturbed portions of Nipon. 

 There they are so tame, that they will follow a labourer manuring 

 his field, as a rook will hop after a ploughman in England, 

 scooping up the " foo foo " (liquid manure) with their bills, as he 

 ladles it out into the rows. By reason of this, I believe in former 

 years, the Japanese used to wonder how foreigners could possibly 

 eat pheasants, as they were such dirty feeders. 



The ordinary pheasant of Japan, is a very differently plumaged 



