196 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



capable of flying so well as to be sbot in mistake for an 

 ordinary bird. The hens of this species are remarkable 

 for the absence of markings on the breast, and the strongly 

 marked bars on the whole of the flight feathers. I cannot 

 refrain from calling attention to the great success in rearing 

 these birds, which is detailed in Colonel Sunderland's com- 

 munication — a success obviously owing to the size of his. 

 pens, and to allo'vving his young birds to roam at large under- 

 their foster parents, and obtain a great part of their own food 

 from the corn, buckwheat, and the artichokes sown in these- 

 pens for their use. When will English gamekeepers learn 

 that pheasants reared in this manner are infinitely superior 

 in health, -vigour, and hardihood to those that are raised 

 under cooped hens in the ordinary manner, and that the- 

 diseases which are so fatal to birds on overcrowded ground, 

 are unknown to birds raised under these conditions ? 



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