120 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



as I have recommended, she had better be left alone, and will 

 leave the nest herself as soon as the chicks are strong enough 

 to follow her. The ridiculous practice of taking the young 

 birds as soon as hatched, dipping their bills in water or milk 

 to teach them to drink, and forcing down their delicate 

 throats whole pepper-corns or grains of barley, is so opposed 

 to common sense that it does not need to be refuted. When 

 young pheasants and fowls are hatched in a state of nature, 

 they are much stronger and more vigorous than those reared 

 under the care of man (unless, indeed, the season be so wet 

 as to be injurious to the wild birds), although they are not 

 crammed with pepper-corns, highly spiced artificial foods, 

 and other nostrums, but have to seek their first food for 

 themselves. Nature is far cleverer than man, but, un- 

 fortunately, the latter has not always the sense to perceive 

 the fact. The nearer we can imitate her in our arrangements, 

 the more successful we shall be. 



With regard to the first food of the young chicks, there 

 is nothing superior to a supply of fresh ants' eggs (as they 

 are generally termed, although, strictly speaking, they are 

 the pupae, and not the eggs of the insects). For grain, I can 

 strongly recommend, as the first food, a good proportion of 

 canary seed in addition to grits and meal. Grain when 

 once crushed or bruised has its vitality destroyed, and it then 

 undergoes changes when exposed to the air ; the difference 

 between sweet, new oatmeal and the pungent, bitting, rancid 

 meal that is often found in the fusty drawers of the corn- 

 chandler, is known to all persons accustomed to use oatmeal 

 as food. This change, however, does not occur in the entire 

 grain as long as its vitality exists, and hence the whole 

 canary seed, which is readily devoured by the young 

 pheasants, is almost certain to be fresh and sweet. More- 

 over, the husk contains a larger proportion of phosphate of 

 lime, or bone-making material, than the centre of the grain, 

 and is, therefore, better adapted to supply the wants of the 

 growing birds. The first food preferred by young partridges 



