TAILLESS COCKS 43 



the one expiration would serve as a reminder of the 

 other. 



If a pheasant is seen without a tail in the early part 



of the shooting season the cause may be put down as 



fox. Probably the tail has been lost through 



Cocks 58 an iU ~ i ud S ed effort to ca P ture the pheasant 

 made by some inexperienced cub the old 

 fox well knows how important it is to grip the body 

 of a bird, not merely feathers. But the end of the 

 season also is a likely time for seeing birds, especially 

 cocks, without tails. The cause then is not foxes' 

 failures. Long before Christmas, even the foxes of 

 the year are old in cunning, while the birds whom 

 they robbed of tails in the days of their callow cub- 

 hood will have grown fresh feathers long since. The 

 cock pheasant who must face courting days without 

 a tail probably owes his loss of tail and dignity to 

 a gunner who aimed too far behind, firing at close 

 quarters. 



But if you should see several cocks without tails at 

 the end of the season the fewer questions you ask the 

 keeper in public the better : the birds are the super- 

 fluous ones of those captured for the laying pens, and 

 have been for a time imprisoned to provide a spirited 

 ending to the last days of shooting. The keeper is 

 not proud of them, and no doubt they are sorry for 

 themselves, 



