212 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



danger is to be feared, for on these occasions the cats come 

 very long distances, attracted no doubt by scent, and when 

 they have once found your birds will be sure to pay them 

 almost nightly visits. As the birds are valued for their 

 beauty, it will add considerably to the perfection of their 

 plumage to place a sufficiency of perches for their 

 accommodation ; not spare and thin ones, but made of deal 

 spars about l^in. square, the sharp edges being taken off 

 with a plane. This will prevent their tails rubbing, and, 

 whether intended for attraction or sale, add not a little to 

 their value. 



" In selecting the brood stock, a cock with four or even 

 live hens will be a fair proportion. I always prefer a cock 

 bird of the second year and hens of the same age (because 

 they lay far more eggs), though the eggs of pullets of the 

 preceding year are productive. The young hens will only lay 

 ten or twelve eggs in a season, but the older birds when 

 carefully managed will frequently lay thirty to forty eggs inn 

 the same period. These eggs require a longer incubation 

 than those of common fowls, as they generally hatch on the^ 

 twenty-fourth day, though I have repeatedly known themi 

 continue in the shell a day longer ; therefore, if desirous of 

 rearing a chicken or two with them (to insure greater 

 familiarity), the fowls' eggs must be deposited accordingly, 

 as nothing tends so sadly to unsettle a hen at hatching time- 

 as some portion of her chicks coming a day or two previously 

 to the remainder, and it not unfrequently leads to the- 

 desertion of her nest. 



" The eggs laid in an aviary should be at once removed 

 from Golden Pheasants directly they are laid ; the cocks 

 being especially inclined to peck and eat them the moment 

 they are produced. The best remedy I know is to pro- 

 cure half a dozen artificial eggs, and let them lie about 

 always, and then the birds, seeing them constantly, 

 regard them less. They are raised in confinement much 

 more easily than the common pheasant, the young growing 



