THE PHEASANT.J 



POULTET. 



[THB DOMESTIC DUCF 



SO that the nest shall be on the ground; 

 and the box should have a lid, that the hen 

 may be shut in. The boxes should be eighteen 

 inches high, and perforated, to admit of venti- 

 lation. The hens must be let off to feed, and 

 shut up again. Boxes are only necessary where 

 a number of hens are set together. When 

 the hens have sat for five or six days, the eggs 

 may be tried, and all which are not good, re- 

 moved, making up each hen's nest, and giving 

 fresh eggs to those that may be left without 

 any. 



After the pheasants have been batched 

 about ten hours, the hen should be put under 

 a coop, solid all round, except two bars in 

 front, just wide enough to allow the poults to 

 run in and out. In other respects it is the 

 same as a common rip for ben and chickens. 

 This should be placed on the grass, on a 

 sunny spot, with a west or south-west aspect. 

 While the chicks are quite young, a run 

 should be made for them, by three boards a 

 foot and a-hali wide, to be supported by pegs 

 driven in the ground, to fence in a square 

 piece before the coop. This piece to be made 

 safe by a network covering. 



If the chicks are strong at the end of a 

 week, the little inclosure may be removed, and 

 they may run at large. When the chicks are 

 a month old, some breeders recommend that 

 the hen should be tethered by day, and placed 

 in the coop again at night. A constant sup- 

 ply of ilean water is very important. 



The greatest difficulty is to hatch the eggs, 

 for t'ley are very easily spoiled by being 

 shaken. In the early days of sitting, the 

 embryo chick is so delicate, that a very slight 

 blow or shock destroys life, and the egg be- 

 comes addled. If a hen can be reckoned on, 

 it is far better to wait till within a week of 

 the time of hatching, as the eggs will bear 

 removal very well at that time, if placed in a 

 basket full of warm, dry wool. In this way 

 we have known eggs removed more than 

 twenty miles, and afterwards nearly all 

 hatched. 



I'or a coop, some make a box, nearly three 

 feet long, two feet wide, and two feet high in 

 front, sloping off to one foot high at the 

 buck, and give it a boarded floor. This box 

 has a lath front, with intervals to allow the 

 young birds to pass out. This is the coop for 

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the hen ; but the young birds ought to have- 

 a further space of about two yards square to 

 run in, fenced off by some means. In rearing 

 young pheasants and partridges, success is 

 more likely to crown our care in a walled 

 garden, as they are then almost safe from the 

 attacks of the weasel, stoat, or rat. If this 

 cannot be procured, we should be careful to 

 select a good aspect, sheltered from the east 

 and north, and open to the morning sun. It 

 should not be exposed to the incursions of 

 poultry. For food, ants' eggs are the best, 

 if they can be got in sufficient quantities ; 

 or maggots, scoured by keeping them twenty- 

 four hours in bran. Mix oatmeal and eggs 

 together carefully ; tie them up in a cloth ; boil 

 them until hard-; and this, broken up, makes 

 excellent food. When the young ones are a 

 fortnight or three weeks old, soaked bread, or 

 bruised barley soaked, may be given, and, soon 

 afterwards, whole barley ; but ants' eggs and 

 maggots should be continued even until the 

 birds are turned into the woods. The feeding 

 recommended by some is — first, hard-boiled 

 eggs chopped fine, crumbs of bread soaked in 

 milk, curd pressed iu a cloth until dry, and 

 ants' eggs ; afterwards, dough, of oatmeal and 

 water. This mu^o not be thrown down 

 to them, but they must be fed with little balls 

 of it as long as they will eat, Tor change, give 

 barley and wheat. 



THE DOMESTIC DUCK. 

 In keeping ducks, one of the first considera- 

 tions to be attended to is, to see that they 

 have plenty of water; for, although a small 

 quantity of this will suffice for them, still, to 

 have it always in such a situation as will admit 

 of easy access to it, is one of the most essen- 

 tial points of duck-keeping. As the flesh of 

 this land of fowl always, more or less, partakes 

 of the flavour of the food upon which the 

 bird has been fed and fattened, it should be 

 confined, at least, for not less than a week 

 before it is killed, and put upon a more choice 

 kind of food than the duck will feed upon 

 when left entirely to provide for itself. This 

 bird is by no means very particular as to 

 what it eats ; whilst its capacity of gorman- 

 d'ising is, where opportunities offer, carried to 

 an enormous extent. We have seen some ot 

 them admitted into a field to follow the plough 



