PHEASANT AND TENNIS COURTS.
A local railwayman supports the theory suggested the other day, that birds desiring to dust have been driven from the tarred roads to the railways. But there are other dusting places. The desire for a dusting surface is curiously illustrated in the garden of a neighbour of mine. He has lately built a red tennis court, which perhaps, in the eyes of tennis experts, is not watered quite so freely as the books advise. To this the pheasants resort regularly and use the dtisting bath generously enough to be a nuisance to the players. A grovelling pheasant is worse for a tennis court than a flock of scabbling larks or starlings for a wheatfield. On behalf of the pheasants let me hasten to add that they frequent the grass walks of another neighbour chiefly for the sake of devouring the bulbs of the buttercups, a most benevolent action. It is difficult to recognize our friends. One of the best grass tennis courts I ever saw was kept trim and free from weeds by guinea-pigs, which were especially severe upon daisies and plantains. An association of cavies and pheasants would, it seems, be per- fection, since plantains, daisies, and buttercups are the three worst weeds !
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