THE CHINA OR DENNY PHEASANT IN OREGON 23 



with which the chicks run for some time subsequently. As might be expected, the last 

 few days before hatching are full of interest and anticipation for the pheasant-breeder. 

 At first tiny chips appear. These enlarge somewhat and the chick seems to turn. With 

 the little embryonic elevation on the beak it again cracks the shell, turns still farther, 

 and cracks again until a line has been broken two thirds of the way around. Then by 

 renewed effort on the part of the chick, the lid-like top of the shell is forced off. It fre- 

 quently happens that the shell membrane remains unbroken under the uninjured part, 

 thus forming a hinge for the lid. 



The young pheasants are at first fed on a meal consisting of hard-boiled egg and rolled 

 oats, and later with fresh-ground meat crumbled with shorts and cracked wheat. Young 

 pheasants are very fond of both adult flies and their larvae, and in order that these 

 insects may be secured for them it is customary to place a little fresh meat in the yards to 

 attract the flies, and it is not an uncommon sight to see a little circle of half-fledged chicks 

 sitting in the sun about a piece of meat waiting for the luckless fly to alight upon a grass- 

 blade beside them. 



One breeder, the most successful of those operating on a large scale, after carefully 

 studying and experimenting for ten years, has succeeded in bringing to maturity only a 

 relatively small percentage of those hatched. Freedom seems to be their one great desire, 



