NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 35 



It is this persistent feature in his 

 character that makes the pheasant so well 

 adapted to the peculiar conditions of 

 modern game preservation, for the taming 

 influences of pen and rearing-field are 

 more than half obliterated by the free 

 life of the woods before shooting days 

 begin, while during the last weeks of the 

 season there can be little doubt as to the 

 true wildness of the average hand-reared 

 cock. 



Where he is free to follow his own 

 devices, the pheasant leaves his native 

 wood with early morning, setting forth 

 on foot to feed and roam all day, only 

 taking wing to fly homewards when dis- 

 turbed, or on his way back to roost at 

 night. A lover of damp places, perhaps 

 his favourite excursion is to follow the 

 course of stream or burn, along which — 

 if no restraining influence be exercised — 

 he will often wander for miles, until 

 ignorant or indifferent as to the way 

 back, he seeks new lodgings at nightfall, 

 and his old home sees him no more. 



