THE PHEASANT 131 



cent, shall prove to be fertile some game-farms go so 

 far as 95 per cent, in respect of their guarantee of 

 fertility. The above prices are subject to a bonus of ten 

 eggs to each hundred for cash payments. 



The success attendant upon the efforts of pheasant- 

 rearers in this country has at length proved a remark- 

 ably stimulating example for trans-Atlantic sportsmen. 

 During recent years North-American shooters have 

 been giving considerable attention to the finding of 

 suitable substitutes for their sadly-depleted stocks of 

 indigenous game-birds. Pheasants, therefore, have been 

 introduced into several districts in the United States, 

 and it is gratifying to learn that in several instances a 

 fair measure of success has rewarded the attempt to 

 naturalize this fine game-bird. 



British game-preservers long ago discovered that the 

 hen pheasant is not the best of mothers, and that, as a 

 consequence, small broods invariably result whenever 

 the birds are allowed to follow their natural bent and 

 run wild. On estates where heavy stocks of pheasants 

 are maintained the method of sitting the eggs under 

 foster-mothers and of hand-rearing the young birds is 

 adopted. This plan entails an increased amount of 

 labour and of course necessitates a correspondingly 

 heavy expenditure, both on this head and in the way of 

 suitable food for the young birds. It is, however, the 

 most successful plan to follow where any considerable 

 stock of pheasants is to be maintained upon a restricted 

 area. In following out this plan it was formerly con- 

 sidered sufficient to rely for the supply of eggs upon the 

 birds running wild in the woods ; in recent years there 

 has been found to be some considerable gain in this 

 matter by gathering the eggs from birds kept in confine- 



