PHEASANTS 



England are so completely tamed and subdued that their 

 original wildness and determination never return. So 

 thoroughly subdued are they, so used to almost every kind 

 of noise, of sight, and of change of condition, that they 

 continue manageable all the rest of their lives. It is not 

 so, however, with their offspring, which are produced in 

 what we please to call a state of domestication. In most 

 instances the breeding, in captivity, of wild animals is at- 

 tended with considerable difficulty and risk, consequently 

 the young are regarded and treated in the most gentle and 

 kindest manner. You must not do the slightest thing to 

 frighten or annoy them. You look at them, talk kindly, 

 pet and feed them with the best and most tempting of 

 food, and they appear perfectly tame and fond of being fed 

 and caressed, but only let some trifling strange thing 

 happen, sometimes the appearance of an umbrella or any- 

 thing moving in the bushes, or a boy's kite in the air, and 

 away goes all the tameness at a moment's notice, the 

 creature rushes at the fence, and, if possible, breaks its 

 neck or legs, or, in its frantic alarm, breaks loose by either 

 smashing the fence or leaping over it, and not unfrequently 

 is so injured that it either kills itself or is obliged to be 

 killed. The simple truth is, that the wild and vigorous 

 natures of these animals manifest themselves only under 

 the influence of fear ; endless instances in support of the 

 above have occurred in this country and on the continent ; 

 in fact, wherever wild animals have been bred in captivity, 

 the vexatious losses which those who, after years of trouble, 

 meet with in an instant, are most trying and dis- 

 heartening. 



Another fact with reference to tame-bred or artificially- 

 reared animals is well worthy of mention. No animal is 

 more dangerous than one that has been reared by hand, 

 whether it be a bull, a stag, or a ram ; having no fear of 

 man, woman, or child, at the season when the animal 



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