THE PEA FOWL. 



665 



regular and good broods. When hatched the chicks should be treated very much as young 

 turkeys, except giving them more animal food. They are not, however, so delicate as turkeys, 

 and in fine weather they should always be let out, but only on short grass. After a fortnight 

 they need very little care indeed. 



The peahen goes with her chicks about six months, or even till next spring, and is a 

 very fond mother. The young appear to need this extended protection, and hence it is 

 almost useless to attempt to hatch the eggs under common hens, which discard their brood at 

 two months, unless artificial mothers are provided to nourish them afterward. Till they 

 moult at eighteen months old, the cocks remain the same color as the hens, and do not get 

 their plumes in full beauty till their third year. Both sexes moult very fast, and appear to 

 suffer much during the process, always seeking the deepest seclusion at such times. It is, 

 however, rapidly over if all goes well, though the new train of feathers seem to remain very 

 short for some little time, when they appear to take a fresh start and rapidly assume their 

 former length.&quot; 



_ J&amp;gt; xT 



The scream of the 

 peacock is very tiresome 

 and disagreeable, and the 

 oird is generally very 

 quarrelsome with other 

 poultry, sometimes even 

 eating young chickens. 

 It likes to roost on the 

 ridge of houses and in 

 trees, but is apt to get 

 frost-bitten in cold weath 

 er in such exposed places. 



Pheasants and 

 Quails. The pheasant is 

 a gallinaceous bird of the 

 family Phasianidce, and 

 has been domesticated in 

 many portions of both 

 Europe and America for 

 several years. When well 

 fattened, the common 

 pheasant attains the 

 weight of about five 



pounds; the quality of the meat is excellent, possessing a very delicate flavor. They are quite 

 hardy, and easily reared, requiring about the same care as chickens. A beautiful variety known 

 as the Peacock Pheasant is classed by naturalists between the peacock and the pheasant. The 

 plumage of this bird resembles that of the peacock, each feather on the back and in the tail 

 having a beautiful ocellus, or eye with greenish and blue reflections, like the latter. These 

 birds are quite rare. Quails are beginning to be domesticated to a limited extent, and although 

 sometimes when hatched by a hen they will seak their wild companions after remaining several 

 months with their foster mother, if they have the opportunity, when kept in confinement tb.3 

 enterprise has proved quite a success. The quail feeds upon all kinds of grains and insects, 

 and sometimes grapes, but is content with but a small quantity of the latter, while it destroys 

 vast numbers of the chinch bug and other insects, and the good accomplished by this bird in 

 this respect many times compensates for the small loss in the grape product from the vine 

 yards. The objection, therefore, that is sometimes urged against the Valley Quail in Cali 

 fornia is not well founded. When domesticated, they should have the same care as chickens; 



ENGLISH PHEASANTS. 



