194 PHEASANTS 



can never be much hope of pheasants 

 doing well by themselves vsrhere foxes are 

 extensively preserved. 



On good partridge ground again — and, 

 generally speaking, it is exactly on ground 

 that comes within this definition that the 

 wild pheasant is best calculated to thrive 

 — pheasants can never be encouraged 

 without affecting the interests of the 

 more popular game-bird. 



Apart from this wide area — amounting 

 to at least one-half of the whole country — 

 where either of these conditions prevail- 

 ing place wild pheasants out of the count, 

 food, soil, shelter and an uncertain and 

 indefinable something that can only be 

 rendered as ' ground on which game does 

 well ' are all that is necessary to produce a 

 race of wild birds. 



While cold, water-logged clay is fatal 

 to the welfare of all game in this damp 

 climate, the wild pheasant will thrive in 

 varying degree on almost every other 

 kind of arable land. The warm, light 

 sandy soils of East Anglia come nearest 



