The Common Pheasant 91 
people refuse to preserve Pheasants, from motives we must respect. I know of one 
practically noiseless weapon with which thousands of Pheasants could easily be killed, 
and it is now being largely employed in killing grouse in Scotland, with little fear of 
detection, but it is not necessary to mention it. Poachers are usually men of consider- 
able cunning and intelligence, such as we find in the eastern and north-eastern 
counties, for very little poaching takes place in Sussex, Wiltshire, Hants, &c, where 
the peasants are slow-witted and wanting in originality. A good preservative for 
Pheasants is to give them plenty of conifers ; spruce and silver firs are the best to 
roost in, and it is then most difficult for a poacher to espy the sleeping birds. Nearly 
every species of vermin, four-footed and winged, preys upon Pheasants. The principal 
mammals that feed on Pheasants are domestic and wild cats, foxes, pole-cats, stoats, 
weasels, and rats. The last named prey chiefly on the chicks and half-grown birds, and 
can do endless damage amongst the coops unless killed. Domestic cats, especially half- 
bred Persians, are most inveterate hunters once they take to the woods, which they 
are apt to do when they have kittens, and will kill hen Pheasants in their nests as 
well as destroying young birds. The fox will live exclusively on Pheasants and rats 
if he is not well supplied with rabbits, and most owners who are anxious to preserve 
foxes and Pheasants now know that it is absolutely necessary to have a good stock of 
rabbits if his Pheasants are to escape. The time foxes do most damage is in August 
and September, when the half-grown Pheasants roost in the long grass along the 
covert edges, and I have known a fox to kill fifty in two nights at this time. They 
are also most destructive if they can enter a wired enclosure where hens are kept for 
laying, and will kill all they can for the mere sake of slaughter. Rats are perhaps the 
worst vermin of all, because they not only destroy eggs and young, but they make 
endless runs under coops and in banks, which are subsequently used by weasels. The 
latter, unless confirmed bird-killers, seldom do much damage, unless they have some 
place of retreat close at hand, such as rat or mole runs. They will seldom go out to 
coops placed in an open field, unless they have some hole into which they can dive 
and drag their prey. I have somewhat of an affection for the little " mouse-hunt," 
which on the whole does far more good than harm, but the keeper will never 
discriminate between the individual sinner and the virtuous race. Ninety-nine times 
out of a hundred, if we watch the weasel closely, he is hunting and killing voles, 
mice, and half-grown rats, and it is the exception when one is found killing young 
Pheasants. 
Considerable destruction to Pheasants' eggs is effected by crows, rooks, jackdaws, 
jays, magpies, and other egg-eating birds. The case of the rook is similar to that of 
the weasel, but whole communities of rooks have become confirmed egg-stealers if the 
individuals who first started the practice are not shot. It is not just, however, to 
brand innocent communities, which are on the whole decidedly good, for the errors of 
a few, for the benefits to agriculture conferred by the rook are of greater importance 
than a few Pheasants' eggs. Curiously enough, rooks have become more persistent 
hunters of eggs than formerly, especially in the open districts of Scotland and Ireland. 
I know of certain places where not one plover's or exposed Pheasant or partridge's 
nest escapes. They hunt the fields and moor edges as carefully as any pointer, and I 
