28 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



eggs, and the margin for losses, under the most favourable 

 circumstances, is always large. This is a fundamental condition 

 with the artificial breeder, for it is one of the amusing features 

 of a system, ostensibly designed to multiply the stock on 

 economical lines, that the allowance for losses and failure must 

 be on the most ample scale. In the natural system, allowance 

 must also be made for losses, but on a much less scale, while 

 the cost of the system is fractional compared to the other. 

 In wild-rearing, it is a question of the number of hens to be 

 left in the coverts after the shooting season is over ; but before 

 discussing this point, there are several other points to consider. 

 In the first place, it is admitted by keepers, and asserted by 

 competent and impartial observers, that if wild birds do not 

 always hatch out the whole of the eggs in the nest, they 

 at least hatch out a very much larger proportion than keepers 

 succeed in bringing out under hens. Mr. Tegetmeir, giving 

 one gentleman's experience as an example, says, p. 105, that 

 in artificial rearing " The fault usually existing is that an over 

 careful pampering system is adopted, and miserable broods 

 are the result. I have experimented in a manner which leaves 

 no doubt upon the subject. Upon one occasion I was anxious 

 to test the fertility of certain pheasants' eggs, and continued to 

 remove the eggs from a nest in the woods until I found the 

 hen desirous of sitting. I left twelve eggs in the nest, and set 

 thirteen , under a hen at home ; the pheasant brought out 

 twelve birds, while at home I only had three miserable birds. 

 Similar results have many times occurred since." Keepers 

 attempt to get over facts of this kind by arguing that although 

 the wild pheasant hatches out by far the largest proportion of 

 eggs, she loses the chicks afterwards, because she does not care 

 what becomes of them as long as she has one solitary chick 

 to follow her, which is a gross libel on the pheasant and on 

 nature. The truly wild mother will hover about for days 

 within a few feet or yards of the nest, immediately after hatch- 

 ing, and, in addition to this, the young birds themselves are 

 surprisingly nimble on their feet from the very first. In truly 

 wild coverts, a clutch of six, or even nine birds is much more 

 common than a clutch of one. We have seen too many wild 

 clutches not to feel sure on this head. The young chicks of 

 the common barn-door fowl are far more helpless than young 

 pheasants, yet we have known eggs of common hens hatched 

 out in the nests of wild pheasants, and the birds reared till 

 they could fly, with eight or nine pheasant companions. 



There is no doubt whatever about the practicability of 



