36 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



young. The poorest kindness and the surest way to kill 

 them is to deluge them with food and let it stand around sour 

 or accumulate on the ground. Watch an experienced game- 

 keeper feed young broods on a pheasant farm. Going from 

 coop to coop, where usually the hen is shut in and about a 

 dozen to fifteen young are ranging in the grass nearby, he 

 throws about three times what he can take up with thumb 

 and fingers, one throw by the slats where the hen can reach 

 it, the rest in the grass just beyond. It is just the same for 

 quails, only they eat less. They find it all, never fear, eating 

 it up quickly. If some birds are not on hand, hunger will 

 make them ready next time. Each bird gets just a few 

 mouthfuls, but it is enough. 



How Often to Feed. Feed little and often is the rule at 

 first. Begin after the chicks are a day old and feed four or 

 five times a day the first week, and four times the second 

 week. Then, since they have learned to range actively, 

 three times a day is enough, and twice a day after they are 

 two months old. Rogers drops to two feeds a day after six 

 weeks. This should depend upon the amount of food the 

 birds pick up. Some feed five times the first few days, while 

 the chicks are learning to eat, which is all right, as they will 

 eat very little at a time. I think the chicks get a better 

 start to eat a little food quite often. They are then less apt 

 to overeat and start trouble. 



Boiled Egg. It is now generally believed that cooked 

 egg is the most practical first food. Two methods are used 

 successfully: One is to boil eggs fairly hard, preferably 

 about five minutes, remove the shell, grate through a sieve, 

 and mix with fine cracker crumbs, or parched bread crumbs, 

 just crumbly moist, not wet or sticky, which latter is also 

 the rule for all mixtures. 



Custard. The second method is to make egg-and-milk 



