iv. PHEASANT REARING (PART III} 69 



china or glass; the hirds soon become tired of 

 hammering their beaks against these, and discontinue 

 their egg-eating proclivities. 



If nothing will cure the cock birds they are 

 generally the culprits remove any that you see egg 

 eating, and substitute others. 



But egg eaters and feather pullers or rather 

 body pickers, for the birds turn cannibals when they 

 acquire this distressing habit are the result of in- 

 judicious feeding, such as an insufficient supply of 

 green food, as lettuce, to keep them cool, or of crushed 

 bones, to satisfy their craving for animal food. 



Avoid any mixture advertised as l Our infallible 

 egg persuading powder ; ' it is a fallacy. Your birds 

 will merely produce the number of eggs nature allows ; 

 it is true you may, by certain heating spices, hurry 

 the hens into premature laying, but only at a risk to 

 their health and the fertility of their eggs. 



Utilise light land for your aviary, and keep birds 

 in it that are healthy, tame, and young ; you will then 

 have no cause to grumble at a scarcity of eggs. 



