128 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS 



PHEASANT COOPS 



(FOR BEARING THE YOUNG BIRDS, OR PLACING SITTING 

 HENS IN ON PHEASANT EGGS) 



Few masters or keepers have any idea of what a 

 coop should be like in shape or size, or how much it 

 should cost in material or labour. 



Many game preservers use coops of unsuitable 

 construction, and, simple an article as a pheasant 

 coop is, yet there is a right and a wrong way of 

 making one. 



I have seen coops of cheap formation that last but 

 two or three years, and then have to be replaced ; 

 besides which a fox will tilt up a light coop to reach 

 the hen, when he cannot move a fairly heavy one. 

 On the other hand, I have many advertisements of 

 coops that are marvels of useless and costly in- 

 genuity. I really wonder the latter, among their 

 other absurdities, are not supplied with lavatories for 

 the hens. 



Some of these fancy affairs are fitted with elabo- 

 rate wire runs (a couple of boards answer just as well), 

 and their total cost often reaches II. a sum that 

 would, to most of us, prohibit rearing pheasants on 

 even a moderate scale, excepting always the lucky 

 folk whose purses are inexhaustible, and who, besides, 

 do not mind paying a pound for what five to six 

 shillings would supply them with equally well. 



