April 24, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



227 



pheasant is a showy bird, of moderate merit for the table, 

 except as an ornament, but nevertheless much esteemed for 

 its beauty and for tlie easy, comfortable shooting that it 

 affords. Pheasants are easily bred in this region from birds 

 or eggs obtained from Bohemia, where the females cost from 

 one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars each, the 

 cocks, in the proportion of one to eight or ten hens, costing 

 somewhat less. 



Any person who has a few acres of thick wood with un- 

 derbrush or open thicket sufficiently tall to furnish good 

 cover has the necessary conditions for growing pheasants, 

 which subsist on wild berries, buds, and the grain that they 

 pick up in the adjoining fields. During hard winters, when 

 the snows lie long and deep on the ground, careful sports- 

 men keep their pheasants within limits by feeding them 

 grain ; but there is in this part of Germany, so far as can be 

 learned, none of that wholesale growing of pheasants in 

 parks like chickens, that is so common and so costly on the 

 great manorial estates of England. 



The cock pheasant may be lawfully shot in Prussia during 

 the whole year, except June, July, and August; the female, 

 only from the 1st of September until the end of January. 

 In most preserves the hen pheasants are rarely or never 

 killed unless the stock becomes too numerous, which it may 

 easily do unless the birds are preyed upon by foxes, hawks, 

 and weasels, which are the persistent enemies of game in 

 most parts of Germany. For this reason foxes, cats, and 

 even stray dogs found at large upon land rented for shooting 

 purposes, may be, and usually are, killed at sight. Aside 

 from its natural enemies, the pheasant is a prosperous and 

 prolific bird, and there would seem to be no reason why it 

 should not thrive abundantly in almost every part of the 

 United States. Birds and eggs for breeding purposes may 

 be obtained in almost any quantity from dealers in Bohe- 

 mia; but, as the demand is considerable from France, 

 England, and western Germany, it is o'ten requisite to give 

 the order some weeks in advance of the laying season, which 

 is in April and May. 



The roe-deer is the smallest and most nearly domesticated 

 of the three species of deer which inhabit Germany. It is 

 likewise the most beautiful, and its flesh is the daintiest 

 venison known to the epicure. In color, form, grace, and 

 fieetness it resembles more nearly the antelope than other 

 species of deer. It lives abundantly throughout the forests of 

 central Europe, but prefers thickets of underbrush in the 

 vicinity of open fields and meadows to the darker and denser 

 woods which form the haunts of the stag and fallow deer. 

 It is this tractable, half-domesticated disposition, its willing- 

 ness to live in close proximity to the homes of men, that 

 makes the roe-deer the valuable game animal that it is. It is 

 no unusual circumstance to find from six to a dozen of these 

 shy, graceful creatures living in a piece of woodland less 

 than thirty acres in extent, and they are so abundant in this 

 region that hunting parties frequently kill in a single day 

 within ten miles of Frankfort anywhere from ten to forty of 

 them. The roe-buck may be killed throughout the year, ex- 

 cept during March and April ; but the doe is protected by 

 law ten months out of twelve, and may be shot only from 

 the 15th of October to the loth of December. The buck 

 sheds his horns in December, and from that time until May 

 looks so much like a doe that he is comparatively safe 

 from sportsmen; but in the early summer he is again in 

 season, and until September, when the stag and the par- 

 tridge shooting begins, he has the hunters practically to 

 himself. Roe deer which live in the neighborhood of culti- 



vated fields often inflict damage upon the growing wheat 

 and rye; but this the thrifty peasant takes immediate note 

 of, and, under the law already noted, assesses the damage 

 upon the lessee of the shooting title. For this reason some 

 of the best hunting leases command but a small rental, and 

 I know of one instance in which a sportsman pays only 150 

 marks (135.70) per annum for the rent of nearly a thousand 

 acres, but distributes each year from $1,000 to $1,200 among 

 the neighboring peasants for the damage done to their crops 

 by his hares and deer. This occurs generally in districts 

 where the proportion of wooded land to arable fields is but 

 small ; but the law which holds the game proprietor respon- 

 sible for its depredations is an eminently just one, and 

 takes from the farmer all temptation to destroy the game in 

 self defence. 



But the plain, reliable, every-day game of the average 

 German sportsman is the hare. It resembles in appearance 

 the brown American rabbit, but is much larger, and its flesh 

 is decidedly superior; moreover, the hare, unlike the rabbit, 

 never burrows, but lives wholly above ground, inhabiting 

 the bleak fields in winter, with no other lair or shelter than 

 a small open hollow scooped out beside a protecting clod or 

 stone. More rarely the hare inhabits thickets and small 

 woodlands adjacent to farms, but in deep, dark woods 

 he is seldom found, and never in any great numbers. 

 But in the open fields of southern and western Ger- 

 many the hare swarms in such profusion as to form one 

 of the definite products of the land. Although not entitled 

 to high rank as game, either for the table or the sportsman, 

 the hare is a coveted luxury to the poor and middle classes^ 

 and in some markets, notably that of Paris, is always in de- 

 mand. At the same time it offers to the sportsmen a pot 

 shot sufficiently attractive to amuse the most competent, and 

 not so difficult as to discourage the inexperienced, gunner. 



The mother-hare bears annually two, sometimes' three, 

 litters of from eight to a dozen leverets, which, although deci- 

 mated by cold, wet weather, and preyed upon by foxes, 

 hawks, and other enemies, still make a brave struggle for 

 life; so that by September, when the shooting season begins, 

 they are as plentiful as field-mice. Except for the few that 

 are shot during the partridge-hunting, hares are not killed 

 to any great extent until December, when the great battues, 

 or drive hunts, are made, which supply the winter market. 

 Although much less destructive to gardens and young trees 

 than our rabbit, the hare is so prolific that, unless kept in 

 check by judicious hunting, he might soon become a source 

 of anxiety to the farmer. In view of this, the law provides 

 that the lessee of field-shooting in Prussia shall drive-hunt 

 the entire area of his lease not less than once in each 

 year. Accordingly, the whole agricultural territory must 

 be shot over by the Treibjagd process annually, and the 

 operation is often repeated when the first hunt has left too 

 large a surplus of hares for the next year's breeding. Drive- 

 hunting for hares is not, perhaps, an exalted form of sport ; 

 but it is always sociable and jolly, and has the further ad- 

 vantage that it gels the hares. 



For a well-organized hunt of this kind, from fifteen to 

 thirty sportsmen are requisite, with twice as many men and 

 boys from the neighboring villages, who are marshalled by 

 the game-keeper to serve as beaters to drive the game. The 

 fields or woods are then taken by sections as large as the 

 line of hunters and drivers can surround, and, although 

 with skilful shooting more or less game always gets through 

 the line and escapes, the slaughter is often enormous. It is 

 no uncommon occurrence for a paj-ty like this to kill in a 



