58 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



settle quietly in the pens before egg laying com- 

 mences. 



Clip the long flight feathers off one wing of each 

 bird, and, however much they bounce about at first, 

 they will become tame in good time, if they are pro- 

 perly fed, and shelters are provided for them to 

 retreat to in the corners of their pens, as before 

 described. 



Never purchase pheasants from dealers for stock- 

 ing an aviary, or you will probably be sent, at half 

 a guinea apiece, birds that either never laid well, or 

 else old hens whose laying powers are exhausted. 



HOW TO CATCH UP WELL-GROWN YOUNG TAME . 

 PHEASANTS FOR STOCKING AN AVIARY 



It is sometimes convenient to stock an aviary from 

 young birds, and, as it is not easy to catch these 

 when they can fly and are in the habit of sleeping 

 away from the coops at night, a few notes on taking 

 them may be of service. 



Of course, very young chicks may without difficulty 

 be shut up in the coops ; but then the time to take 

 the birds is when they have grown big and strong 

 enough to forage for themselves, and when the cocks 

 and hens can be readily selected. At this period of 

 their existence they will dart out of a coop on being 

 frightened, instead of into it. 



