18 REMINISCENCES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



milk ; small ant eggs during the day ; at a month's end 

 put a small piece of saffron into their water, and every 

 morning, for each frame, give a good-sized toast steeped 

 in chamber-lye, which will keep them free from dis- 

 temper, and is of great use in causing easy moulting. 

 Use the young birds to a whistle when fed, which should 

 be four times during the day. 



" When the jDOults are large, there should be a hole in 

 the frame to let them in and out, and a sliding-board 

 to pen them in at night, when they are always to be 

 covered with mats. Before the hole is opened in the 

 morning there should be food, such as large ant eggs, 

 buckwheat, and other grain, laid near the frame ; every 

 day this is to be moved further from it : by doing this 

 they will soon learn to take care of themselves, and at 

 the sound of the whistle wijl come in from all quarters, 

 like pigeons : when they gradually pay no attention to 

 the whistle, and at last desert, they are safe ; they can 

 now provide for their own sustenance and safety," 



Mr. Salerne observes, that the hen pheasant when 

 the powers of propagation are over, acquires the plumage 

 of the male. Latham, however, says, incorrectly, that 

 it does not require mature age to cause this appear- 

 ance, as sometimes young birds undergo this change. 

 Daniel says that early in October he once shot a hen 

 pheasant with this variety of colom^: it was one of 

 seven full-grown young birds, found in a wheat stubble. 

 He killed a brace of cocks and from the feathers supposed 

 this when he fired to have been a third : from every 

 circumstance, this mule bird had not changed his 

 plumage from age. He has kept hen pheasants in 

 mews, until from age they have undergone this strange 

 alteration : and also shot them in some manors where 



