vi. PHEASANT REARING (PART F) 95 



High rank grass is just as liable as a cold damp 

 soil to produce gapes and other diseases in young 

 pheasants. 



The grass should grow up with the chicks. As 

 these become older and more fully feathered, the 

 cover as it gradually increases will do them no harm, 

 and will supply insect food and shelter. 



Of course, before the grass grows up, though 

 weasels, rats,* and stoats will not give much trouble 

 from a want of concealment, yet the young birds will 

 have to be guarded against the possible attacks of 

 winged vermin for every moment of the day. Chicks 

 dancing up and squeaking show that ground vermin 

 is about ; and, when they squat and look upwards 

 with one eye, and the hens cackle and stick their 

 heads sideways out of the coops, there is a hawk on 

 the wing somewhere in their sight, though you may 

 not see it. 



Should the grass, after a time, grow very thick, it 

 may be mown here and there in small round patches 

 of some three yards across a patch to each coop. 



On these spots the birds will pick up their food 

 and sun their plumage when wet. 



It is always best to dispense with the usual paths, 

 or rides as they are called, in a rearing field; for 



* There is a plague of rats now in every farmyard. The de- 

 struction of owls and hawks has something to say to this, but the 

 fact that farmers have no time to kill rats from their anxiety to kill 

 rabbits and sell them has a good deal more to do with it ! 



