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Pheasants often do well the first year after they are planted 
In this Ozone of failure,' and thus give rise to false hopes, Leopold 
saes. In subsequent years, however, they gradually disappear. To des- 
cribe this gradual 'fade-out', the term *straggling* has been coined 
by the author of the report. The last straggler to disappear is fre- 
quently an old cock. 
Why these more southerly pheasants straggle and disaps, r in spite 
of abundant food, and sometimes in spite of adequate protection, is ill 
a mystery. They thrive in captivity in the very territory where they 
fail in the wild. Leopold suspects that the soil or foods of the zone 
of failure lack some essential vitamin or mineral, which in the case of 
captive birds is supplied by the Imported foods on which they are comonly

fed. 
Hungarian partridges, Leopold finds, succeed in the same zone as 
pheasants do, but in more narrowly restricted parts of it. The successes

so far are confined to northwest Ohio, north Indiana, southeast Michigan,

northeast Illinois, southeast Wisconsin, southern Minnesota, and north- 
west Iowa. 
Where either pheasants or Hungarian partridges succeed, their 
maximum abundance runs about as high as that attained by the native 
bobwhite, namely about one bird per acre. 
Leopold denies as untrue the popular assumption that pheasants 
thrive without cover. He asserts, however, that the Rangarian partridge 
thrives on less cover than any other g     bird, provided food be abundant.

Merely planting exotic game birds in the right place does not 
assure a future supply abundant enough to warrant shooting, Leopold says.