XXVI PROCEEDINGS. 



are -svell acquainted: and the most interesting fact is tlie well- 

 ascertained capability of the English pheasant to live and find its 

 own subsistence in our woods through a rigorous winter. Wliy 

 sliould not this experiment be continued?" 



1 have known golden pheasants on the property of Mv. Faulk- 

 nei-, the brewery, Dartmouth, to roost out away from tlieir weather- 

 proof house in the branches of fir trees, uninjured in any way, on a 

 cold night when 33 degrees of frost were registered. 



And as to the Virginian deer, the following appears in the 

 same paper : — " The red deer then of Maine and the Canadas, and 

 more recently of New Brunswick, appears to be perfectly adapted 

 for an existence in the Nova Scotian woods — a graceful species, 

 but little inferior to the red deer of Europe, affording the excellent 

 venison witli which the New York and Boston markets are so well 

 supplied. Indeed it is already with us, for a small herd of healthy 

 animals may now be seen at Mr. Downs's gardens, to whom the 

 country is already indebted for many an unassisted attempt at real, 

 practical acclimatization." 



Between the above and the present date, 190G, this beautiful 

 deer has been turned out and so tliriven that it is be found now in 

 every county of the province. Its greatest enemy, the wolf, is 

 not found in Nova Scotia, tliough frequent in the adjacent 

 intervals a troop of these marauders comes in over tlie connecting 

 istlimus and is heard of here and tliere from various counties which 

 it visits, but the species lias never been known to stay. There is 

 something about tliis province which docs not suit its fancy. In 

 frequent wanderings I have only once seen the track of a wolf in 

 Nova Scotian woods. It was cliasing a young moose in deep snow. 



Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the Game Protection Society 

 which was inaiigurated at Halifa-x in 1852 when I was present, the 

 province has definitely added Cervus virginianus to its larger game. 

 It is everywnere increasing. One of the society's agents speaks of 

 it in last year's report as " coming out in tlie fields among the 

 cattle on several occasions." 



Though spoken of in the yearly reports as being found wild 

 here and there, the pheasant is not doing so well, as the fox, the 



