ODDS AND ENDS 281 



by a lessor of shooting that ' I have reared a 

 thousand pheasants,' or ' I will rear a thousand 

 pheasants/ is not at all the same as ' I am rearing 

 a thousand pheasants,' which he might reasonably 

 hold to mean, ' I am trying to rear a thousand 

 pheasants.' Therefore, I think, if a man says, ' I 

 have reared so many pheasants,' or ' I will rear so 

 many,' it may be assumed that he undertakes to 

 supply so many pheasants of not less than five 

 weeks old, when they are fit to be turned into 

 covert, and are practically safe from losses by 

 disease. Given so many pheasants turned into 

 covert at not less than five weeks old, how many 

 is it reasonable to expect to kill ? I should say 

 three-quarters, unless the shoot has unusually 

 detractive features, such as bad coverts near the 

 boundary (beyond which are good coverts with 

 every attraction), no stock of wild birds, and few 

 rabbits, much vermin, and many foxes. It is not 

 unusual in fair circumstances to account for the 

 same number, or even more than the same number, 

 of birds as were turned into covert. Generally 

 speaking, an ordinary stock of wild birds may be 

 relied upon to cancel ordinary losses among hand- 

 reared birds ; but it is impossible to lay down any 

 hard and fast rule applicable to all sorts and con- 

 ditions of shoots. The circumstances of no two 

 shoots are precisely the same. To account for 

 five hundred pheasants out of a thousand may be 



