82 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



deteriorate from want of exercise. Though pheasants can 

 exist thus for some time, they will lay less eggs, low in fer- 

 tility, and producing weaker offspring. At the close of the 

 feeding season they should have more room for exercise. 

 Oneway is to catch them and put them in a large fenced field, 

 if pinioned, or, if not, in a larger covered pen. The flight 

 feathers are growing during late summer and fall, up to 

 November. Another method employed by Mr. Rogers is 

 as follows: His portable pens are made with the bottom 

 board at the front and rear ends on hinges, so that these can 

 be raised and hooked up. The pens are dragged together 

 and set end to end, with these boards raised, making a con- 

 tinuous run as long as is desired. The hinged boards when 

 raised just meet, forming a roof, and all that is then needed 

 is to nail a bit of board to the junctures on the sides. By 

 this means the pheasants can range together through quite 

 a long enclosure, and can be kept thus through the winter. 



Hatching Pheasants. In the matter of hatching, the only 

 difference from the quail methods is that the eggs are stout 

 enough to allow the use of ordinary hens instead of bantams. 

 Pheasant chicks, however, are considerably smaller than those 

 of poultry, and the smaller the hen the better. Bantams are 

 all right for this work, if one has them, only they are not, as 

 with quail, absolutely necessary. Fifteen to eighteen eggs 

 should be set under an ordinary hen, and a less number under 

 bantams, using no more than can be properly covered. 



Rearing Systems. Where there are only one or a few 

 broods, the easiest way is, as with the quail, to give each 

 brood a coop and let them roam with the hen during the day. 

 If safe ground is scant, the hen can be shut up in the coop, 

 and the young kept near by providing shade, food, and 

 water, and skulking places. In New York State, where set- 

 tings of eggs are sent out with printed instructions, farmers 



