A Good Dog Is Necessary to Hunt Maine Pheasants

Some Are Tame and Some Are Wild

-  Henry Milliken

"Look at those big birds!” exclaimed Chester, my friend from Connecticut. “What are they?”

“Pheasants,” I quickly informed him.

“Do you hunt them in the fall?” Chester inquired.

“Occasionally,” I replied.

“They must be easy to shoot,” he declared, “because they are so big and so tame.”

“Tame!” I muttered. “That’s what you think! They are difficult to find and even more difficult to hit.”

“It doesn’t seem possible,” he said. “Look at ’em now. There’s a half-dozen of ’em walking along the road.”

 

“Sure,” I admitted, “they are sauntering here and there to their heart’s content, but when the season opens they seem to evaporate from their favorite rendezvous in the fields and pastures. I have often thought that Maine pheasants receive preseason information regarding the methods employed by hunters and their dogs. Our pheasants have evidently attended some sort of a bird college; they are well educated.”

“Perhaps you have not studied them enough to become a proficient pheasant hunter,” Chester said.