The Common Pheasant. 65 



is that these birds cannot be afterwards turned out. 

 The birds will require their wings cut every three 

 weeks, or they will escape. If a proper place has 

 been chosen, the hens will be visited by the wild 

 cocks. 



All the pens will require a door placed in one side. 

 Of course, if the first plan is adopted, and a large 

 number of pens are required, it will greatly reduce the 

 cost to build them in a block ; they thus form the 

 sides of each other, and in some cases three of the 

 sides, or even four, if a large number are built. 



The birds should be well fed, but not so much so as to 

 render them fat. Maize, wheat, and abundance of green 

 food, should form the staple diet. Pheasants enjoy 

 a swede or turnip, savoy, chickweed in fact, almost 

 any fresh, green food. They must be well supplied 

 with water, to which you will, of course, add a little 

 tonic, like the sulphate of iron mixture, at times. When 

 they commence to lay, a sharp look-out must be kept 

 for the eggs. Most eggs are laid in the latter part 

 of the day or early in the morning. When the birds 

 are in full lay is the time to keep up their strength, 

 and, for this purpose, nothing is better than Spratts 

 Crissel, added to boiled potatoes, barley-meal, waste 

 scraps of the house, &c. Boiled rice is also good. 

 Think how very monotonous the food of penned birds 

 is, when we compare it with the little delicacies sup- 

 plied by Nature. 



Some writers advocate the placing of coops round 

 the keeper's house, propping up the sliding door, 



F 



