Pheasants General Management, &c. 69 



Ants 1 Eggs. Young pheasants ought to get some ants' 

 e gg s > if possible ; they help them along, and seem much 

 appreciated. If ants' eggs are not obtainable, a substitute 

 must be found. It is not advisable to give the live ants, 

 only their eggs ; moreover, the latter will keep any length 

 of time. The difficulty is to separate the eggs from the ants 

 and other matter. The best process is in the first place 

 to expose both ants and eggs to the sun, and provide a 

 few branches of green leaves, as the only shelter near. 

 Place the branches on a board or cloth. The ants will 

 then carry their eggs beneath the shelter afforded, but do not 

 let them get under the flat surface provided. In a little 

 while the ants will for the most part get on to the twigs 

 and leaves of the branches, which should then be removed, 

 and a piece of blanket or similar material drawn over the 

 remainder, and shaken until nothing but the eggs remain. 

 The best substitutes are Spratts Patent " Crissel, " and 

 bruised wheat soaked in chamber lye for two or three days, 

 and then treated to a kind of frying in a dry tin. It is then 

 ready to be given ' in small quantities among the other food. 

 These things are almost necessaries in young pheasants' 

 food. 



Catching up Birds. It is very often necessary to catch 

 up pheasants alive and uninjured. There are several ways 

 of doing this in a wholesale manner, which are best not 

 mentioned. But they can be taken at the feeding places 

 by what is termed "hingling," or fixing up a number of 

 rabbit snares, with the loop arranged to draw only sufficiently 

 tight to hold the bird without choking it. They can also be 

 caught in the kind of bird-trap delineated in Fig. 10, which 



