PHEASANT REARING 77 



are further along the road to that immunity which domesti- 

 cated poultry have largely acquired. For this reason it is 

 much better for beginners first to learn to raise a few ring- 

 necked pheasants, after which they will be much more likely 

 to succeed with quails or grouse. 



Stand More Crowding. One main difference is that more 

 pheasants than quails can be kept in an enclosure. True, 

 they must have more room than poultry, and thegroundmust 

 regularly be ploughed or alternated. Yet, rightly handled, 

 they can be managed in large numbers. Rogers winters a 

 thousand or so of young birds in a fenced field of five or six 

 acres. But there is a limit, beyond which is danger. 



Starting. Start can be made either by buying eggs from 

 the increasing number of pheasant breeders or by securing 

 birds to produce the eggs. The latter method is preferable. 

 Purchased eggs may come from poor scrub stock. If the 

 eggs vary in size, shape, and colour, it is a bad sign. In buy- 

 ing birds, one should insist on having only good stock, and 

 no lean, ragged runts. Starting with good birds, and giving 

 them proper care, the eggs should produce strong chicks. 

 Young from weakly stock lack vitality and are liable to die 

 off, in spite of all care, thus giving unnecessary discourage- 

 ment to the beginner. Moreover, eggs raised on the prem- 

 ises are more likely to hatch than those shipped by express. 



Wintering Stock. Secure stock in fall or early winter if 

 possible, and provide winter quarters much as for quails, 

 though more birds can be kept together with safety. The 

 aviary or fancy kinds must have sheds or coops for shelter, 

 whereas the hardy ring-necks can stand almost anything. 

 Mr. Rogers says that his ring-necks in large fenced fields 

 seldom use the coops he has provided, but prefer to roost 

 out on the most exposed ridge of the fields. They have 

 withstood safely a temperature of 45 degrees below zero. 



