102 ^:P&A8slNTS : FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the day ; and all having been removed, a wooden egg may be 

 exchanged for the real one, which will soon tire him out ; and 

 the bad habit may be cured, and no loss of time occur in the 

 breeding season. But whether the birds are troublesome or 

 not in this respect, the attendants must make periodical visits 

 to the breeding pens for the purpose of collecting the eggs, 

 as they should never be allowed to remain about. " 



There is no doubt that bad management and improper 

 feeding tend to promote this serious evil. The frequent 

 disturbance of the birds by the inquisitiveness of visitors, bad 

 and improper stimulating food, without a sufficiency of green 

 vegetable diet, want of cleanliness in the pen, and insufficient 

 or dirty supply of water, and want of grit to assist digestion, 

 all aid in developing the habit. Mr. J. F. Dougall, in his 

 " Shooting Simplified/' suggests the following mode of 

 preventing the practice when once established : tc In 

 pheasantries means should be taken to prevent the eggs 

 being destroyed by the male bird ; and as it is impossible to 

 keep continual watch, the hen should be induced to seek a 

 dark secluded corner by forming for her an artificial nest 

 covered thinly with straw. Under this straw have a net of 

 mesh exactly wide enough to allow the egg to drop through 

 into a box below, filled with soft seeds or shellings, leaving 

 only a few inches between ; the cock bird cannot then reach 

 the egg, which falls uninjured on the soft seeds below, and is 

 safely removed. !) 



Mr. Leno writes : " I have invariably found the cocks to 

 be the culprits. As soon as a pecked egg is found, the cock 

 bird should be removed, and the hens left by themselves for a 

 few days, to see whether he is or is not the guilty one; 

 before putting in another cock with the hens, fill up the 

 shell of the broken egg with soft soap, which the fresh bird 

 may try his hand at. In case the first cock has been at 

 mischief long enough to teach the hens, there is no saving 

 the eggs, unless they are watched and the eggs picked up 

 immediately they are laid, or by partitioning part of the pen 



