96 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the repasts be neatly and delicately served, not forgetting 

 that, while all required is offered with no niggard hand, over- 

 lavish generosity, only too often the mere promptings of 

 laziness, ought most carefully to be avoided. 



" Powerless are the prisoners to escape those fatal mias- 

 matic vapours speedily generated by decaying vegetable and 

 animal matter, which, when permitted to daily be trampled 

 into the floors of the dwelling, are ever within a few inches, 

 be it recollected, of their respiratory organs. In connection 

 with this matter also, it is wise to have duplicate shallow 

 circular galvanised iron water pans of about eighteen inches 

 in diameter. They are light, and consequently more likely to 

 undergo that thorough and frequent cleansing so necessary." 



Coverts may be stocked either with wild birds or with those, 

 hatched in pens, that have never been at liberty. Wild birds 

 caught at the commencement of the year, not later than the 

 middle of January, are healthier and more prolific than young 

 birds that have never been allowed to fly. When caught, 

 they should at once be put into large pens on fresh ground, 

 having had the flight feathers of one wing cut off, when, if 

 they are properly fed, they will become fairly tame before the 



breeding season. However tame they may become, they 

 should not be kept more than one, or at the most two seasons, 

 when their wings should be allowed to grow and other birds 

 captured to supply their place. Other modes are adopted for 

 capturing the wild birds. The above very simple form of 

 trap is described by Mr. J. E. Harting, and is perfectly 

 efficacious for the purpose required. It is merely a modifica- 



