CHAPTER VIII 



PHEASANTS: IN WAR 



To the keeper a pheasant is a pheasant Wild v. hand-reared for 

 shooting Craftiness of wild birds Little and big covertsA 

 keeper's dodge My first pheasant shoot Bad guns make bad 

 birds A beater's comment Woods alter Fog. 



PROVIDED it is a good one, I do not care a rap 

 whether a pheasant is hand-reared or wild when I 

 am shooting at it ; and the better it is, the less I 

 care. Who shall say of any pheasant whether it 

 was in bondage bred or free ? Certainly not the 

 men who most often express an opinion on the 

 antecedents of birds they have missed ; neither 

 can the keeper do better than guess. To him a 

 pheasant is a pheasant in the shooting season, and 

 so long as it puts in an appearance when shooting 

 is going on, he does not care how or whence it 

 came. However, he is always positive that every 

 pheasant seen near the boundary is one of his tame 

 birds. 



Wild pheasants are better than hand-reared birds 

 for keeping up the stock for breeding. When you 

 shoot through a wood at the end of the season, 



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