FEEDING YOUNG PHEASANTS. 121 



is the seed of the crested dog's tail grass (Cynosuruscristatus), 

 with which their crops will often be found quite full, and 

 there is no doubt it would be au equally advantageous food for 

 young pheasants, but is not as readily obtained as canary seed. 

 To afford a supply of artificially prepared animal food, 

 most of the books recommend hard-boiled eggs, grated or 

 chopped small, to be mixed with bread crumbs, meal, 

 vegetables, &c. Nothing, however, can be less attractive to 

 the young birds than the food they are frequently condemned 

 to exist upon. I have often seen pieces of the chopped white 

 of hard-boiled egg, dried by the sun into horny angular 

 particles, refused by the young birds, although on these, with 

 bread crumbs also dried to brittle fragments in the sun, many 

 persons attempt to rear young pheasants and necessarily fail. 

 The best substitute for ants' eggs is custard, made by beating 

 an egg with a tablespoonf ul of milk, and " setting " the whole 

 by a gentle heat, either in the oven or by the side of the fire. 

 The clear eggs that have been sat on for a week answer 

 perfectly well. No artificially prepared animal food can 

 surpass this mixture. The egg supplies albumen, oil, phos- 

 phorus, sulphur, &c. ; whilst the milk affords caseine, sugar of 

 milk, and the requisite phosphate of lioie and other mineral 

 ingredients; moreover, these are all prepared and mixed in 

 Nature's laboratory for the express purpose of supporting the 

 life and growth of young animals, and combined as custard 

 form a most soft, sapid, attractive food, that is eagerly 

 devoured by the poults. From my own long experience in 

 rearing many species of gallinaceous birds, I am confident 

 that a very much larger proportion can be reared if custard 

 and canary seed form a considerable proportion of their food 

 for the first few weeks, than on any other dietary whatever. 



Many rearers of pheasants are strongly in favour of 

 using curd, made from fresh, sweet milk put on the fire, and 

 when warm turned or curdled with alum, and then put into a 

 coarse cloth, which is to be twisted or pressed until the curd 

 is a hard mass. There are several objections to curd as 



