5 JANUARY 1934, Page 20

* * * * A Militant Beauty Some of the

"fancy pheasants," including this melanistic mutant and the Japanese Versicolor may be regarded_ as `not unwelcome additions ; but there is one sort, introduced fur purely aesthetic reasons, which has no virtue except its strange and fantastic splendour. The Amherst is a menace. Evidence

accumulates in regard to its pugnacity. It drives away the wild pheasant that would nest in its vicinity. It breeds well,' witness a lovely pair or two that have faced the curiosity of _ visitors, in the Whipsnade Sanctuary, without -turning a feather. Its fatal defects are that it is cantankerous and can seldom be persuaded to fly at a greater height than some thirty feet. A good many are at large in Bedfordshire and Hertford- shire.

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