i\. PHEASANT REARING (PART VIII) 155 



feeding onbfull-gr&wn pheasant for twelve months at 

 2s. 9</.* 



From the figures given above you can easily 

 determine the cost of feeding your birds per day, 

 week, and month, after they are full-grown, till the 

 time they are shot, as well as the amount of food the 

 stock of birds left for breeding will require. 



HOW TO FEED FULL-GROWN PHEASANTS IN THE 

 COVERTS SO AS TO KEEP THEM AT HOME 



Coarse Indian corn is much the most suitable 

 food t to give full-grown pheasants in the coverts, as 

 small birds will not carry it off to any extent ; and 

 certainly there is no food pheasants relish more, or 

 on which they thrive better in a wild state. Strew 

 the corn along the rides or paths, or in clearings in 

 the undergrowth, invariably at the same places and at 



* Though of course it varies in price, you should in most years 

 be able to purchase Indian corn at 13s. a sack of 240 Ibs. if you 

 obtain a considerable supply from the dealer at a time. If you only 

 take a small quantity its cost may be a couple of shillings more per 

 sack, and the expense in feeding your pheasants will of course increase 

 in proportion. If, for instance, corn is at 16s. per sack, the cost of 

 one full-grown pheasant in food for a year would be nearly 3s. 5d., a 

 high price ; but then pheasants are only fed as full-grown birds for a 

 portion of the season, excepting always the stock of hens, whether 

 old birds or birds of the year, that are spared for nesting. When the 

 birds are killed late in the winter, of course more food will be required 

 towards their support than if they are shot at the usual time, in the 

 beginning of November, but their higher selling price in the former 

 case will probably meet the additional outlay of corn bestowed on their 

 sustenance. 



