FEEDING IN COVERTS. 55 



they can get it ; and if I try them with the mixture above 

 named I find all the other grain neglected. The young 

 pheasants at the coops begin to eat it before they are as 

 large as partridges, and then entirely neglect the barley, &c. 

 I never see pheasants that are kept up in better condition 

 than my own, and they have nothing but Indian corn, a few 

 turnip leaves, and clods of turf to pull to pieces. Another 

 great advantage of maize is that small birds cannot steal it, 

 with the exception of the tom-tit, and though almost the 

 smallest, he holds the corn with one foot and hammers away 

 like a miniature woodpecker, commencing at the part of the 

 grain that is attached to the stalk, finding that the only road 

 in. It is but a very small part of each corn that he is able to 

 eat, but it seems to possess great attraction for him. There 

 are six or eight of these little birds live constantly near my 

 house at this season ; and though chaffinches, blackbirds, and 

 thrushes all try their best at the maize, they soon give it up 

 hopelessly. Rooks take it greedily, and were it not for an 

 occasional ball from the air gun they would rob the pheasants 

 of every grain." 



In feeding pheasants in this manner, care should be taken 

 to change the ground frequently, for if they are fed on the 

 same place for a continuance the ground becomes tainted, the 

 food is necessarily soiled by the excrements of the birds, and 

 disease is the invariable result. 



Feeding troughs, which open with the weight of the 

 pheasant when standing on an attached bar in front of the 

 corn, are not extensively used. The objections to them are, 

 in the first place, their expense, some fifteen shillings to 

 thirty shillings each, which becomes a serious item when 

 many are required ; their liability to get out of order ; andj 

 lastly, the unlimited supply they afford to the feeding bird, 

 which crams itself to repletion without any exercise, and is 

 disinclined to seek food on its own account. 



Unquestionably, one of the best modes of feeding pheasants 

 is by the use of small stacks of unthreshed grain or beans : 



