66 Practical Game Preserving. 



It is quite evident, therefore, that the plan of providing food 

 huts within the coverts is least likely to induce this state 

 of things. The disadvantage is that you cannot very well 

 feed otherwise than with grain in the straw without over 

 feeding the pheasants, and suffering great loss through 

 consumption by other birds. It must be borne in mind that 

 there is always present a larger or smaller supply of natural 

 food in the coverts on which the pheasants can draw, and 

 that for the most part the artificial food must but take 

 the form of an addition to this/ except towards the month 

 of December, and through to the end of February, when the 

 ordinary supply of food is practically exhausted ; and then, 

 unless the game birds are provided with a proper and 

 sufficient substitute, off they wander far afield in search of 

 it, and your coverts are quickly empty. 



If for reasons which are considered sufficiently urgent the 

 huts have to be dispensed with, then the birds must be fed by 

 hand twice a day. This entails a considerable amount of 

 labour and attention, as on extensive estates the visiting of 

 the several feeding places twice in the day will consume a 

 large amount of time. Under the circumstances we should be 

 inclined to make exception to the rule, and feed but once, 

 and that in the morning, providing sufficient food for an 

 evening meal as well. The great disadvantage which attends 

 this mode of feeding is the loss sustained consequent on wild 

 birds consuming the food intended for the pheasants, and, 

 unless one is careful, it sometimes occurs that the latter 

 go hungry by reason of the former's energetic feeding. All 

 modes of giving the pheasants food, therefore, should enable 

 one at the same time to protect it from the ravages or 



