TETHERING HENS WITH YOUNG BIRDS. 123 



at uight^ the Avire netting being suflScient protection against 

 vermin and cats. I do not know whether any of your readers 

 have ever accompanied their keeper on a hot summer 

 morning when he is letting the young birds out of the coops. 

 If not, let them do so, and but put their noses within a foot 

 of the coop, and I will venture to say that they Avill never 

 allow such cruelty again. More than a dozen birds confined, 

 perhaps, for ten hours in a dirty, ill-ventilated box, con- 

 taining less than half a cubic yard of air. No wonder that 

 they look languid and drooping, and that it takes them half 

 the day to recover. I am far from insisting that the birds 

 should at all times be kept in these small yards. When they 

 are more than a week old I would, in fine weather, raise one 

 of the sides and let them roam at their will, of course, re- 

 placing the board at night. But in wet weather and in the 

 mornings before the dew is gone, I would keep them up, and 

 not run the risk of their getting draggled and chilled with 

 running on the wet grass." When shut in at night, which is 

 often necessary to avoid loss by weasels or rats, &c., they 

 should be let out at da^'break in the morning. 



Many keepers prefer rearing the young pheasants under 

 hens that are tethered by a cord to a peg driven into the 

 ground, with an open shelter coop into which they can 

 retreat at night and during rain. 



In tethering hens used for rearing young pheasants, a 

 jess, such as is used by falconers, is generally employed. A 

 piece of thin, flexible leather, about eight inches long, by 



something less than lin. broad, should be taken, and three 

 openings cut in it, as shown in the diagram, which is one-half 

 the requii-ed size. The part between A and B should be 

 l)laced round the leg of the hen, the slit A being brought 



