Many - Coloured Game At a rough shoot the other day a
pheasant of a very strange plumage was shot. It was black and dark brown except for a generous sprinkling of white spots about the neck and head. A specialist who was consulted, and purchased the bird, decided that it was a melanistic mutant hermaphrodite! A good many strange sorts have been enlarged in England. I have myself seen gold and silver pheasants, Reeves and the enormous—if his tail be reckoned—Amherst, which breeds most successfully in the perfect little sanctuary attached to the Whipsnade Zoo. This last is the only specie% or variety whose cultivation is deprecated. It is beautiful but cantankerous, and, from the sportsman's angle, prefers, like the Reeves, to fly not more than a yard or two above the ground.. It is wise to be chary of releasing foreign birds and mammals, and, indeed, insects ; but some sorts are known to be safe. It is pleasant to know (from the Imperial Chemicals research station) that the French partridge, though in some districts hardier than the English or Hungarian, is not a hater of the cousins. It is, indeed, distinctly less warlike than the home bird. It is worth recording on this theme that the American quail has done well in England.
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