AFTER THE OPENING 187 



the season as it affects wild birds. What he prays 

 for is a showery April, with a sun to shine between the 



storms. And he wants fair weather after the 

 Weather middle of May, the longer the better. A 

 fo P PFay bright warm summer is good for all pheas- 



ants, whether it be their fate to start life 

 beneath a fowl in a stuffy, if cosy, coop, or to be 

 gathered beneath the breast and wings of their real 

 mother in the wood, or among the corn. A fine 

 summer means more to birds than to man, for to 

 them it is a matter of life or death. 



Walking home through the woods on the evening 

 of an October First, we came to a standstill 



before a low tree-branch on which an old 

 After C ock pheasant was going to roost. We were 

 Opening within a yard of him ; yet he sat stock- 



still, and stared at us fearlessly with un- 

 blinking eyes. The minutes passed, and after we 

 had stood there for some little time, staring back 

 at the old pheasant, it really seemed that we had 

 established a bond of communication. And this 

 is what we understood the old cock to be saying : 



44 Here I am, you see, and not afraid of you ; and 

 none the worse for an opening day that has been, I 

 must admit, a trifle lively. And I may inform you 

 that before I went to roost I made careful inquiries 

 among my very numerous progeny, and not one is a 

 feather the worse for all the banging that has been 



