PHEASANTS 
England are so completely tamed and subdued that their 
original wildness and determination never return. So 
thoroughly subdued are they, so used to almost every kind 
of noise, of sight, and of change of condition, that they 
continue manageable all the rest of their lives. It is not 
so, however, with their offspring, which are produced in 
what we please to call a state of domestication. In most 
instances the breeding, in captivity, of wild animals is at- 
tended with considerable difficulty and risk, consequently 
the young are regarded and treated in the most gentle and 
kindest manner. You must not do the slightest thing to 
frighten or annoy them. You look at them, talk kindly, 
pet and feed them with the best and most tempting of 
food, and they appear perfectly tame and fond of being fed 
and caressed, but only let some trifling strange thing 
happen, sometimes the appearance of an umbrella or any- 
thing moving in the bushes, or a boy’s kite in the air, and 
away goes all the tameness at a moment’s notice, the 
creature rushes at the fence, and, if possible, breaks its 
neck or legs, or, in its frantic alarm, breaks loose by either 
smashing the fence or leaping over it, and not unfrequently 
is so injured that it either kills itself or is obliged to be 
killed. The simple truth is, that the wild and vigorous 
natures of these animals manifest themselves only under 
the influence of fear ; endless instances in support of the 
above have occurred in this country and on the continent ; 
in fact, wherever wild animals have been bred in captivity, 
the vexatious losses which those who, after years of trouble, 
meet with in an instant, are most trying and dis- 
heartening. 
Another fact with reference to tame-bred or artiflcially- 
reared animals is well worthy of mention. No animal is 
more dangerous than one that has been reared by hand, 
whether it be a bull, a stag, or a ram ; having no fear of 
man, woman, or child, at the season when the animal 
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