138 Practical Game Preserving. 



on the matter of food during the first week or so we must 

 make a distinction. The chief food black game chicks con- 

 sume for two or three weeks is the seed and small flowers 

 of a small rush termed the "spret" or "sprit," which grows 

 very thick and close on moorlands and commons, and lone 

 copse, &c., near and- in boggy parts. Unless you can place 

 the coop with the hen and chicks on a dry piece of turf 

 near some small stream of water where the spret is abun- 

 dant, you can expect but poor success. For the rest, the 

 several styles of feeding recommended for pheasants are 

 applicable, and if a good supply of spret-seed can be pro- 

 cured, it ought to be given as part of each meal. Besides 

 this, much depends on choosing a good site whereon to 

 place the coops and broods. We know no better than a low 

 rough meadow with a small stream of water running through 

 it, and along which there is a fair cluster of low brake, such 

 as bushes of hazel and thorn, brambles and bracken, &c., or 

 failing this, the sides of a sheltered mire, if in wooded ground 

 so much the better. Although the chicks like to get about 

 amongst the growth upon damp, wet places, they cannot 

 stand rain and moisture in their coop; consequently it is 

 necessary to watch them carefully at first, moving the coops 

 .whenever they appear to require it. After the broods are 

 about three weeks or so old, they commence to gather strength 

 and independence, and they should be left to their own 

 devices, as much as possible, to procure food, until they are 

 sufficiently matured to turn down, when they should be 

 capable of providing their own sustenance, and be able to 

 wing a lengthy flight. It is advisable to get the birds well out 

 to quiet undisturbed places before turning them away, other- 



