26 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



themselves. The system alluded to by Mr. Tegetmeir, of 

 hatching the eggs in dry, insanitary pigeon holes, one above 

 the other in tiers in dark sheds, is quite common among game- 

 keepers who describe themselves as " experts " in the business. 

 This applies more to England than Scotland, where, we are 

 told, artificial rearing is practised more successfully and intelli- 

 gently, the keepers often taking the work of rearing by 

 contract, at so much per bird, till the birds are taken off their 

 hands on the first of August by their employer. The expert 

 whom we mentioned before, in writing to us on this subject, 

 says the results of this system are very different from those he 

 can remember, where a Sussex man, " who could neither read 

 nor write," was employed on a Scotch estate to breed the 

 pheasants not an uncommon plan we believe yet. 



One plea of keepers for picking so many wild-laid eggs 

 out of the coverts to put under hens is, that the wild birds lay 

 more eggs than they can hatch, and that it is better to at least 

 remove some of them, although it is seldom the pickers-up 

 discriminate very nicely. Now, as regards this point, we 

 believe that where the coverts are stocked year after year 

 with coop-reared birds, the birds become partially domesti- 

 cated, or rather demoralised, in their habits, and run together 

 like barn-door fowls, several hens often laying in the same 

 nest ; hence the large number of eggs sometimes found. We 

 have often seen the hens running together in crowds at the 

 beginning of the laying season, and under such circumstances 

 over-full nests were often found ; but nothing of the kind 

 happens among really wild pheasants. We lived for years 

 close to the extensive pheasant coverts belonging to the Duke 

 of Buccleuch, in Scotland, all stocked with wild birds, the 

 nests of which we often found, and the number of eggs rarely 

 or never reached a dozen. It was, moreover, rare to find a 

 nest in which all the eggs were not hatched off. The real wild 

 pheasant, like other wild birds, does not, as a rule, lay more 

 eggs than it can cover and hatch out, and that, we believe, is 

 also the opinion of competent naturalists. Morris, in his 

 " British Birds," gives the usual number laid, under natural 

 conditions, at from six to ten, " sometimes " as many as four- 

 teen ; and Mr. Tegetmeir, p. 13, says the number is "usually 

 about eight or nine." It is important to be accurate on this 

 head in calculating the number of hens to be left in the wood 

 where pheasants are bred wild. 



In conclusion, the subject of the artificial rearing of 

 pheasants may be summed up as follows : First, that accord- 



