THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT. 187 



*200 young pheasants. Three times a week from six to twelve 

 plucks were spread in the morning 1 on a hurdle covered with 

 lin. mesh wire cloth, and set out of doors, and by night were 

 fully blown, when they were taken into the house and hung 

 on the hooks. Seven plucks will produce from four to seven 

 quarts of maggots. The hopper boxes were about half filled 

 with a mixture of wheat bran and ground beef scraps (one 

 quart of scraps to six of bran), thoroughly mixed and 

 moistened with water. In about twenty-four hours (depending 

 somewhat upon the temperature) the maggots drop into the 

 bran, where they find additional food and then drop into the 

 drawers below. They are not in condition to use until the 

 fourth or fifth day after the meat is blown, but if not then 

 placed in a cool place will change to the chrysalid state, unfit 

 for the chicks, in a few hours. By placing them in a 

 refrigerator as soon as fully grown, where the temperature 

 does not exceed 45, further development is arrested, and 

 they may be kept for several weeks. 



" All this may not seem very enticing work, but it is a 

 necessity, as this or some equivalent must be used for food to 

 insure success in raising Mongolian pheasants. The chicks 

 are so small and tender for the first two or three weeks that 

 all efforts to raise them on the food recommended for the 

 English pheasants end more or less in disappointment. When 

 fed on maggots the loss from disease was slight, but a 

 considerable number were lost by accidents. When the young 

 pheasants were but three or four weeks old they flew over the 

 fence and into the adjacent woods. The treatment of the 

 young Mongolian was quite different from the directions given 

 for raising English pheasants. After the first week the board 

 was taken away from the little yard, and the birds were 

 allowed to go at pleasure into the large inclosure, shutting 

 them up at night and letting them out in the morning, often 

 by five o'clock, making no effort to keep them out of the wet 

 grass or rain. They sometimes became quite wet, but did 

 not seem any the worse for it. They will stand any weather 



