50 
HIGH PHEASANTS : 
4. That a very high pheasant may be struck by four or 
five pellets without causing it to fall, or even wounding it but 
slightly. In the examples given, it happened that, with only 
two exceptions (one doubtful. No. 16), one pellet killed each 
bird. We have, however, no estimate of the number of very 
high birds that are hit, but not killed, because a ' lucky ' 
pellet does not penetrate a vital part. 
5. It will be noticed how few of the birds were hit in the 
wings, legs, or near the tail. The answer is, that if they had 
been chiefly hit in these parts they would have either flown 
on, or perhaps fluttered down, and could not then have been 
regarded as shot ' dead in the air,' and, therefore, I should 
not have received them, or sent them to be reported on. 
6. Very few birds were hit in the neck, and only one 
killed (doubtfully. No. 16) in this way. The neck of a pheasant 
is very tough, and about as thick as a man's thumb. If you 
fire at a piece of wood of this thickness, and 3 in. or 4 in. long, at 
40 yds. above you, you might not put a pellet in it once in a 
score shots, and even if you did, allowing the piece of wood to 
represent its neck, it does not follow that you would penetrate 
this sufficiently to kill the bird. 
7. A very high pheasant has many chances in its favour, 
and I am glad it has. In the case of the twenty birds 
reported on (a small proportion, no doubt, of the very high 
ones shot at), twenty-one pellets were fatal out of sixty-two that 
struck. 
8. Taking an ordinary high pheasant as being 28 to 30 yds. 
above the shooter, even if only five or six pellets strike 
say. There is much exaggeration in the theory that No. 7 severely wounds a 
high bird if it is only struck in the body. This is more likely to occur with 
a pellet of No. 4 than with a pellet of No. 7 (see p. 52). 
