176 THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 



wretched life. Temporarily or permanently deserted eggs, 

 some already chipped, are each season recovered and 

 brought home to the incubator (which often has a holding 

 capacity of 300), where the chicks made their exit within 

 a few hours. The chief value of an incubator lies in the 

 fact that eggs of uncertain age can be dealt with easily, 

 and the chicks dried off as soon as they leave the shell ; 

 for this drying process represents a very critical stage. 

 Further, when chicks are hatched by an ordinary brood- 

 hen they can be removed to the incubator's drying 

 chamber in order to avoid the risk of being crushed to 

 death by the fussy foster-mother. 



The pheasants on any estate could soon be numbered 

 on one's ringers were it not for the employment of incu- 

 bators and domestic brood-hens. The very shyest, 

 wildest bird from the covert, the very courtliest or most 

 reserved Prince Phasianus himself, has in all probability 

 some strain of the foreign or English barnyard fowl in 

 him ; a detailed pedigree going far enough back would 

 almost certainly show that he had benefited directly or 

 indirectly by some dowdy yellow hen or a lifeless incu- 

 bator. Thus the pheasant has lost his or her claim to 

 rank among the wild winged game of the field or copse, 

 and as far back as the time of Elizabeth the male bird 

 was known to cross voluntarily with the ordinary domestic 

 fowl fetched originally from Indian jungles. I have 

 myself observed Prince Phasianus attempting to fraternise 

 in the poultry-yard, as showing what a fearful rake he 

 may become in spite of all our specialised stay-at-home 

 covert-mixtures. Decided hybrids have been brought 

 home to my very door, and become pets and playthings 

 for children, while two miles away the highly burnished 

 Phasianus himself strutted like an independent lordling. 

 His territory had its human custodians, who were also 

 purveyors of wholesome food, and general attendants on 

 his person, and though professing to be too proud to rub 

 shoulders with them, he would never hesitate to creep 

 out on the sly to pick up the food thrown down. 



