PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



every-day haunts. They become very much like tame 

 pigeons ; they have their liberty but they do not leave home. 

 In many cases they are almost as much under control as the 

 birds in the pens, and the treatment being the same in both 

 cases, the results are often much the same. A bird in a large 

 open pen is almost in the same position as the one outside 

 under these circumstances. In an open pen fresh blood can 

 be introduced more successfully than outside, and the hens 

 still have the benefit of the outside cocks. Also there are 

 many things that can be done with advantage in the pens, 

 which are not practicable outside, which help the birds to 

 produce the best results. Of course the outside birds have 

 advantages over the others, but results show that the eggs 

 from penned birds are usually as good in every way as from 

 (so-called) wild birds in the home coverts. There are times 

 and seasons when these outside eggs prove to be the best, 

 but, on an average, if the pens are well and successfully 

 managed the eggs from them are far more regular and 

 reliable. 



" But there is another class of Pheasant in the British 

 Isles known to most keepers. This one has never been seen 

 on any of the usual feeding-places. In fact, it has always 

 avoided them, and all that appertains to such places, as much 

 as possible. It has never known what it was to fill its crop 

 in a few minutes from a quantity of food thrown down for 

 it, but has had to pick and constantly feed in a perfectly 

 natural way, the whole of its time. It has become so quiet 

 and cunning that it has quite escaped notice, and its presence 

 is quite overlooked. It usually has, or appears to have, a 

 mate all to itself, and this is a very fitting mate in all respects. 

 So cute is he that notwithstanding his bright plumage he 

 keeps himself quite invisible, and even when he crows, by 

 a provision of nature, he does it in such a manner that his 



