THE COMMON PHEASANT 
There is such a craze at the present time among a few modern natu- 
ralists for regarding nearly every bird as a sub-species of something 
else, to which it is often only remotely related, that the term has practi- 
cally ceased to have a defiite meaning. The term sub-species, if properly 
understood, is no doubt a very useful one, and has a very real meaning 
for expressing closely allied local races which are undeserving of specific 
rank, but it cannot, with propriety, be applied to totally distinct species 
because they interbreed and produce fertile offspring when artificially 
brought together. The pheasant, besides interbreeding with its nearest 
allies, will cross with the somewhat distinct Reeves’ pheasant (P. reevesii), 
and Elliot’s pheasant (Calophasis ellioti), also with the cheer, golden, 
Amherst, kalij and silver pheasants, with domestic fowls of all sorts, 
especially game -bantams, and with guinea-fowl, but such hybrids are 
rarely, if ever, fertile. More strange are the wild hybrids produced between 
pheasant and black grouse, and occasionally between pheasant and caper- 
caillie. Many instances of the former are on record, and are probably, 
in most cases, the offspring of a blackcock and hen pheasant, but the cock 
pheasant has also been known to pair with the greyhen and produce 
young. Most of the hybrids recorded have been males, possibly because 
the females are less conspicuously different, and are more readily over- 
looked. The hybrid with the capercaillie is very rare, and only three or 
four instances, all males, have been recorded as occurring in Argyllshire 
and Aberdeenshire. They are large, ungainly -looking birds, without the 
beauty of either parent, and are probably produced by the union of a cock 
pheasant and hen capercaillie. Plates of both the black grouse and 
capercaillie hybrids will be found in Mr Millais’ “ Game-Birds and Shoot- 
ing Sketches.” 
Enemies . — ^The pheasant has many enemies, both furred and feathered ; 
of the former the principal are foxes, stray dogs, domestic cats and, of 
course, where they occur, wild cats, polecats, stoats, weasels and rats. 
The four first named take the hen pheasants on their nests, and the 
others, especially rats, kill numbers of chicks and young birds. Foxes 
occasionally cause great damage by getting into the wire enclosure where 
hens are kept for laying, and display extraordinary powers of climbing. 
An instance of this occurred when a mangy fox which had already 
visited the pheasant pen and killed a large number of hens, paid a second 
evening call, and was seen in the act of clambering up the high wire 
fence with apparently little difficulty. 
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