WILD-BRED AND HAND-REARED 



regions — say, upon cold clay, or where the coverts are 

 almost entirely surrounded by grass land, in a rigor- 

 ous climate or on high ground — you can never make 

 your pheasant shooting even approach the point of 

 cheapness or profit, but must, since the conditions will 

 be still more artificial, always submit to a very heavy 

 outlay. 



The description given by the old huntsman, chaff- 

 ing the gamekeeper of a shot at a pheasant — 'Up 

 gets a sovereign, off goes a penny, and down comes 

 half a crown ' — although it probably exaggerates the 

 cost of production of the bird, will go very near repre- 

 senting the figures of your balance sheet in a sterile 

 game country. 



Generally speaking, it will pay much better to rear 

 on a heavy scale than on a light one. Many keepers 

 and owners have discovered this, and it accounts in a 

 great measure for the enormous increase in pheasants 

 throughout England and Scotland. The same staff 

 of men employed as keepers, watchers, and beaters 

 where the results are poor, and the shooting is roughly 

 described as ' bad,' would, as a rule, suffice to look 

 after three times the amount of game ; and thus the 

 w^ages item, together with the larger amount of value 

 in game realised, more than counterbalances increase 

 of the bill for food and appliances. 



