PHEASANT SHOOTING. 93 



It is almost unbelievable the number of birds that rray be seen 

 feeding in the open fields along the roadside during a days march; 

 but there are at least a dozen foreigners, who will bear me out in my 

 statements. On my first visit in the winter of 1907, the pheasants 

 swarmed, so that I could knock them down with my whip as I rode 

 past. On my second visit during the Clark Expedition, four foreigners 

 and a couple of dozen Chinese lived upon pheasants for over 

 two months, no other meat being available, except an occasional 

 duck and venison onc'e or twice. We shot over the thorn 

 scrub coverts within sight of the walls of Yen-an Fu to our hearts 

 content, and when we left the birds were as numerous as ever. But 

 it was during my last visit in the winter of 1911-12 that their numbers 

 surpassed anything I had ever dreamed of, as they swarmed, literally 

 in hundreds, along the roadside. The crops,' owing to the Bevolu- 

 tion, had not been gathered in that autumn, and this seemed to attract 

 unusually large numbers of birds out of the hills on to the wide valleys. 

 The members of the Sbensi Eelief Expedition shot pheasants till they 

 were tired of the sport, and still the birds refused even to take cover. 

 Had we the ammunition, there would have been no difficulty in bagging 

 two or three hundred birds a day, and these conditions existed over a 

 stretch of country that took five days to traverse, going at a good rate. 

 I knew, too, from previous journeys that the same conditions probably 

 extended eastward across the Yellow River into Shansi, and westward 

 nine or ten days' march into Kansu. 



In China the most satisfactory, one might almost say the only way 

 to shoot pheasants is by walking them up, over dogs if possible. There 

 is no need for driving, and I am glad to say that out here, at least, 

 we have none of the indiscriminate-slaughter kind of sportsmen, who, 

 detesting any kind of hard work, refuse to go after their game, and 

 whose main object is to kill as many birds as possible, with the least 

 exertion, and in the minimum space of time. 



Almost everywhere in China pheasant shooting entails a fair 

 amount of walking and hill climbing, but how handsomely one may be 

 repaid for his labour the following anecdotes may serve to show. 



Some twelve miles to the west of Tai-yuan Fu in Shansi, lies a 

 little hamlet named Sheng-yieh, situated at the head of a ravine in 

 some well wooded and mountainous country. Adjoining the hamlet is 

 a small temple, one room of which has been repaired, and made suit- 

 able for habitation by a public spirited resident of Tai-yuan Fu. It has 

 long been the custom for the shooting members of the community to 

 spend their shorter holidays shooting in the district. The mountains, 

 which rise rather abruptly from the plain, are formed of sedimentary 



