200 PHEASANTS 



properties that march with ours, on which a few 

 hundred pheasants are turned out, but as we see 

 our young broods with their parents all over the 

 fields before the reared birds have left the coops, 

 I should say that we gain very few if any birds 

 from our neighbours, while it is certain that they, 

 by leaving crops standing and constant shooting, 

 get a large number of the pheasants which have 

 been reared on our land. The nearest rearing- 

 field of any of these would be between one and 

 two miles from our main coverts. 



6. Any new blood introduced. — No, I am 

 a confirmed believer in in-breeding, believing that 

 thus you obtain a race which is most fit for the 

 conditions prevailing in the locality. 



Having now answered your queries, I trust you 

 will allow me to describe how, in my opinion, that 

 (so-called) bad mother, the hen pheasant, came to 

 be such a model matron, as she undoubtedly is, on 

 this estate. 



Many years ago it occurred to me that it 

 might be possible to improve the parental qualities 

 of the pheasant by the force of example, and, 

 having learnt that the period of incubation of 

 that excellent mother the partridge, was the 

 same as that of the pheasant, I instructed my 

 keepers to place two pheasant eggs in each of a 

 large number of partridges' nests, with the result 

 that I have myself seen the young pheasant at an 

 early stage of its life in the covey with the 

 young of the partridge. 



