99

Concord, Mass.
1916.
Aug. 30
to
Nov. 4

Ring neck Pheasants [Ring-necked Pheasant]

   Ring-necked Pheasants cannot have reared many, if
any, young last summer, at least in our neighborhood,
for those appearing there in autumn were few in number
and apparently, without exception, adults of which nearly all
were cocks, handsomely plumed and throughly [thoroughly] versed in
wiles by the exercise of which birds of their kind and sex
safeguard themselves so generally from every danger. They
and the hens frequented the Berry Pasture chiefly but
so sparingly and inconstantly as to be seen for the most
part only singly & not oftener than once or twice weekly. One or
two resorted occasionally to a field of millet at the Ritchie
place or to Lawrence's wide-streaking mowing fields, but none
were either seen or heard in many another near-by
haunt from which they have seldom absented themselves
in former years. During the entire open season
(Oct 12 - Nov. 12) I hunted them persistently, at every