rilKASANTS. 225 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



PHEASANTS. 



THESE birds scarcely come under the head of Poultry ; but as 

 they are often kept on account of their great beauty by 

 amateurs as well as extensively reared for the gun, some notice 

 of them will not be out of place. 



Confined near a house, in an aviary open to view, pheasants 

 will seldom lay, and scarcely ever sit. In such circumstances 

 evergreen or other shrubs should be so arranged as to afford 

 them some seclusion, which may induce them to breed ; but it 

 is best to hatch the eggs under a common hen. Some hen 

 pheasants, however, will lay and sit very well. Such are usually 

 those which have been hatched and reared in confinement ; and 

 the fact proves to our mind that with care and perseverance 

 these birds might in time be as thoroughly domesticated as the 

 other inmates of our poultry-yards. It is confirmatory of this, 

 that whilst the wild hen only lays a dozen or fifteen eggs, in 

 confinement, the eggs being taken daily, a home-reared bird 

 will often lay forty or fifty, as in the case of the common fowl 



Pheasants require, more than any other stock, the most 

 scrupulous cleanliness, with very abundant green food, and 

 rather more animal substance than other poultry, otherwise 

 the general treatment is very similar. The cock, who must be 

 at least two years old, should be mated with three or four hens 

 not under twelve months. 



One wing should always be cut or stripped, to prevent the 

 birds flying up and injuring themselves, as they will otherwise 

 do. This is the more necessary, as an aviary for pheasants 

 should never be covered, the adult birds doing much better 

 in an open run well gravelled and kept clean. 



When reared as an amusement 011 such a limited scale, the 

 chicks, which hatch on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day, 

 should be put out and treated generally much like chickens, or 

 p 



