PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



feeding) not to use sufficient heat-giving, energy-producing, 

 and filling-up material in the form of starchy foods as cereals, 

 or meals, or other cooked preparations, also other seeds 

 which are the natural foods of the feathered creation, for 

 only birds have gizzards or ' mills ' in their digestive organs. 

 Oils and fatty foods which are two and a half times the 

 power, weight for weight, of the starches, sugars, etc., in 

 giving heat and energy, are necessary for lubricating the 

 joints and digestive organs and for keeping open the bowels, 

 also for stimulating the nervous system to nourish itself 



" Proteid food will sustain life if used alone so that it 

 contains bone-forming phosphates and salts for the young 

 and growing individuals of the animal creation, but by itself 

 it seems to lack the ' filling-up ' bulk which seems necessary 

 to give the 'satisfied' feeling to the stomach, at least in 

 mankind, while without vigorous exercise out of doors it 

 certainly causes costiveness if used excessively or alone. 

 With regard to the proportion of food constituents, I believe 

 in the end it will be found that different treatment, and that 

 almost indefinitely, is better ; still, of course, an average may 

 then be taken of a large number of cases. 



" Pheasant chick foods are sold by game food dealers, and 

 perhaps these foods might be materially improved by the 

 addition of such special seeds as these birds love to pick, 

 such as the acrid, biting, irritating seeds of buttercups, 

 common arum (or cuckoo-fruit, or ' lords and ladies '), also 

 pilewort and others to which an observant keeper may 

 see them help themselves in the height of the seeding 

 season. 



Many of these seeds seem absolutely useless to other 

 living creatures, although they are useful in certain medicines 

 for our own kind. These seeds may add to or take the 

 place of other seeds in the already prepared dry chick foods 



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