38 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



Early Regimen. A good regimen, then, after the first 

 few days, would be four meals, say at six, ten, two, and six 

 o'clock, mostly egg or custard, perhaps varied with a little 

 dry curd and ants' eggs. More food should be given morn- 

 ing and night, less during the day. For the first few days 

 give a very little food every two to three hours. 



Transition. After a few days' feeding, the use of prepared 

 " pheasant meals" and seed mixtures may be begun. The 

 idea is to begin gradually to mix in these other foods, and 

 slowly reduce the quantity of egg, giving very little egg 

 toward the last, and stopping it when the young are six 

 weeks old, or even before, as some do. The practice is, in 

 general, to begin to use the pheasant meal in small propor- 

 tion with the egg, and eventually to substitute it for the 

 latter. This article is a balanced ration of cereal, meat, 

 spice, etc., similar to dog biscuit finely ground. Both 

 Spratt and Evans supply a good article. Especially for 

 very young birds it is well to scald the meal separately, and 

 let it stand for an hour or so to swell. It may be mixed over- 

 night, if kept cool, but no longer. Beware of food even 

 slightly soured. 



Begin Grain. Since gallinaceous birds feed considerably 

 on seeds and grain, the chicks should learn to eat such food, 

 beginning when about a week old. Spratt's chick-grain and 

 Evans' pheasant feed, fine, No. 3, are both excellent mix- 

 tures of various nutritious seeds, ground grain, and peas, 

 meat, grit, and the like. Some mix a little with the mash at 

 first, to get the birds accustomed to it; others give one meal 

 a day of it clear, usually the midday feed. Rogers finds that 

 some seeds and grains ferment rather soon when wet, but that 

 canary seed does not. So he begins by mixing canary seed 

 in the mash, and soon the chicks, getting used to hard seeds, 

 will eat the chick-grain dry. After they are two months old 



