CHAPTER VIII 



THE REARED PHEASANT 



While the wild pheasant may not, of 

 late years, have been given quite the con- 

 sideration his merits deserve, the hand- 

 reared bird must always keep his place, 

 under the present conditions of sport, in 

 all but singularly favoured districts, as 

 the main feature of winter sport with the 

 gun. 



No game-bird suffers from so much 

 indiscriminate abuse. Each year, when 

 the calendar marks 'Oct. 1st, pheasant 

 shooting begins' — papers of weight and 

 standing find space in their columns for 

 amazing journalistic efforts on the subject 

 of the pheasant. To take but a few lines 

 from an article in one of the most sober 



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