31 MARCH 1933, Page 15

It is a question whether we are not damaging the

pheasant. which bad become almost English, by the new importations and product of game farms. The country is full of curious hybrids, difficult to distinguish ; and it is, I think, scarcely disputable that the old English pheasant, so called, and the white-ringed pheasant which more or less supplemented it these many years ago, are both superior in appearance and in quality to the new types. But they arc not, perhaps, hardier. Indeed the melanislic mutants are probably the easiest of all to rear and have therefore been favourites among the

game-birds. • * • •