FOREIGN PHEASANTS
SIR,—Your " Country Life " Notes of November 28th contain two errors in regard to the habits and disposition of foreign pheasants. The Amherst. pheasant is not quarrelsome with other species and will exist in considerable numbers in coverts heavily stocked with the ordinary variety. I have lived for a great part of my life in woods where the Amherst pheasant was abundant and on no occasion have I ever seen one chase or fight a common pheasant of either sex. If a fight did occur, I should imagine that the Amherst would get very much the worst of it for the cock is a lighter bird than the ordinary pheasant and his spurs are so small and poorly developed as to be almost rudimentary.
It is also inaccurate to say that the Reeves' pheasant is a low flyer. An occasional individual will fly low, as will an individual common pheasant, but the majority of Reeves fly fast and high and provide difficult shots especially in hilly or undulating country. Their chief fault from the keepers' point of view is a tendency to go back over the beaters' heads if they have reason to suspect danger in front.
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