ON THE REARING OF PHEASANTS BY HAND. 131 



but my readers may take my word for it that 

 life or death hangs on the constitutional power 

 of resistance. Partridges are much more easily 

 reared than pheasants, and may be fed on much 

 the same food, only the smaller ants' -eggs may be 

 given them in greater profusion than to the phea- 

 sants. Black game are the most difficult to rear, 

 and with them the same food will suit, with the 

 addition of some young shoots from the heather ; 

 but there is something which they require more 

 than either pheasant or partridge, the nature of 

 which I have not been able to ascertain. Always 

 let the game-coops be put, if possible, on fresh 

 ground, — never attempt to breed up in consecutive 

 years on the same spot ; if you are obliged to do 

 so, during the intervening winter give the ground 

 a slight dressing of lime or chalk, but on no account 

 whatever have anything to do with gas lime, for 

 it is death to insect life, and baneful to the tender 

 vegetations. The great difficulty lies in giving to 

 the young pheasants a light but strengthening food, 

 such as the mother finds for them in the immense 

 variety of insects scattered over the surface of the 

 lands within her haunt. Every inch of ground, 



every blade of grass or corn, every leaf, and every 



K 2 



