118 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



cock which ran to cover though hard hit. Quite half an hour 

 was spent in looking for him, when finally as in a flash, his 

 tail was seen. After that the wonder was how he had been 

 overlooked: yet another pair of eyes called up for the sake 

 of experiment was unable to discover the bird even when 

 the looker was assured it was within a few feet of his nose! 

 On Christmas Day, 1908, 1 saw a hen pheasant running across 

 the Shanghai Recreation Club ground. She took shelter by 

 the little creek there, but, though there was absolutely no 

 grass cover, two of us were unable to find her though we 

 looked carefully for some time, Our common pheasant is to 

 be met with from Manchuria to Canton. Wherever he can 

 find suitable cover and opportunity enough to permit of 

 broods' being safely raised, there he seems to thrive. 

 Conditions throughout so many degrees of latitude vary 

 immensely, but the pheasant is adaptable, and makes the 

 best of them all. What he cannot bear up against, what 

 indeed no bird can exist under, is persecution and murder 

 during the breeding season. It is nothing short of crime to 

 kill these birds during the months from February to October. 

 Yet there are people who not only do it but glory in it. We 

 had a French sportsman in Shanghai once, M. Dechaud of 

 the Messageries Maritimes, who prohibited the taking of 

 game on board the French mails during the close season, but 

 his truly admirable example has not always been followed, 

 and the result has been a steady decline in the number of 

 pheasants in this part of China and as far up the river as 

 Nanking and Wuhu. The Chinese Government should see to 

 it. The Shanghai Municipal Council does something, but 

 even here greater strictness should be observed, for no mercy 

 should be shown to the purveyor or the consumer of forbidden 

 game. Preservation is necessary to prevent extinction. 



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