MEEVES'S PHEASANT. 107 



"Until the year 1890 I had seen and shot several Reevefi's 

 pheasants, and under ordinary conditions of covert shooting 

 was content lo consider tlie bird hardly a success from a 

 g'unner's ])oint of view. During that autumn, h(j\vever, I 

 went to the annual covert sho(jt at tiuisachan, Jjord Tweed- 

 mouth's lieautiful seat, near Boa,uly, in Ross-shire, and it was 

 there, amidst the wildest and shaggiest of Scotcli scenery — 

 iu country which must to a great extent resemljle the true 

 hoiue (.if the bird in (question — that I had cause to alter my 

 opiniou. 



"In one liigh W(.iod ijf old Scotch firs, on a steep and 

 broken hillside above the waterfall, the sight of these birds 

 coming along only just within gunshot, in couipany with 

 common plieasants and Ijlackcocks, I shall never foi-get. 1 

 sa\-, ' in com|)any with ' but, as a, mutter of fact, as S(_ion as one 

 of the long-taiied sky-rockets cleared the trees, he left the 

 others far behind, and came forwa.rd at a ]")ace which was little 

 short (jf terrific. I doubt if any bird of tlie genus goes 

 faster. 



" N(3w this is all that the sportsman want-<. Here we have 

 a bird of unrivalled l)eanty, great hardihood, and unequalled 

 pace, which pivactically fulfils all the couditious wliich the 

 modern shooter requires. The only other condition which is 

 absolutely essential to nia.ke the Inrd a. ^ui-cess from this point 

 of view is its local envir(minent. In this respect (uiisaclumis 

 not sin^-uhir, a.nd I could name a hundred localities iu Scot- 

 land, England, and A\'ales where Reeves's jdieasant \vould Ije 

 certain to succeed. 



"The Guisachan lilrds were obtained by the late Ijord 

 Tweedmouth Iroui Balmacaan, the late Loi'd Seafield's estate 

 uea.r Loch ^'ess, where 1 ha.ve also seen them shot. Xo 

 artificial rearing was resorted to ; the birds wei-e breeding in 

 a wild state, and slutting entirely for themselves, except for 

 the mai/.e wbieli was put down for the ordinary i)heasants. At 

 l^almacaan, where the birds were in low open woods, one may 

 see Reeves's pheasants killed in the v,ay m which they should 



