Practical Game Preserving. 



be prejudiced, but we would sooner have the old mongrel 

 farmyard hen than any other. They sit tighter, they are 

 quiet, and not easily alarmed, and for care and anxiety 

 for the welfare of the chicks, they are unequalled. Silky 

 fowls are also recommended as well as turkeys ; we have 

 not had any personal experience with the latter, but those 

 who have for the most part sing very faintly of their 

 merits for pheasant hatching and rearing. Of the machine 

 hens, otherwise incubators, there is little to be said. Those 

 who have the time and patience which they require can hatch 

 out eggs fast and successfully enough, but for the game- 

 keeper of ordinary character, they would hardly prove a 

 very good way of hatching. 



Proportion of Cock and Hen Birds. The question often 

 arises as to what is the most advantageous proportion in 

 which to leave the birds at the end of the season, and how 

 to determine the relative number of male and female birds 

 to be left in the coverts. Most preservers, who take a 

 practical interest in their pheasants, seem agreed that 

 invariably too many cocks, or to put it the other way 

 about too few hens are killed during the season, and the 

 result is a bad hatching time, as far as results are concerned, 

 when the spring comes round. We hold the same opinion, 

 and think the matter deserves enquiry, more particularly 

 on preserves where a large head of pheasants is kept up. 

 To guard against an overplus of birds one way or other, 

 the best mode of procedure is to decide, about the first 

 week in December, not earlier, upon a certain covert as 

 the one in which to endeavour to keep the breeding stock 

 for next year, until the end of the season. By careful 



