REARING PHEASANTa. 227 



facing west or south. These pens should be made of tem- 

 porary hurdles or fencing, six or seven feet high, constructed of 

 laths nailed an inch apart, and touching the ground every- 

 where at bottom, so as to keep out vermin. The advantages of 

 such a plan are, first, cheapness, and secondly, convenience ; as 

 the hurdles can be taken down when the breeding season is 

 over, and packed away in a very small compass. It is also 

 advisable to erect them every year on fresh ground, which 

 such a rough construction eminently facilitates. 



Every such pen is adapted for a cock and three or four 

 hens, whose wings must be cut to prevent their flying over. 

 For a nest a slight hollow should be scooped in the ground 

 in the centre, and filled with sand, at each end of which, 

 and six feet apart, a short stake thirty inches high should be 

 driven, on the tops of which is nailed a horizontal pole. 

 Against this pole rough twig fagots are inclined from each 

 side, forming a rough kind of shelter, which the pheasant 

 prefers to any regular receptacle. 



The eggs should be collected every evening ; and if this 

 be regularly done, every hen in the breeding-pen will usually 

 lay at least twenty-five ; the laying faculty, as we have already 

 remarked, being increased by domestication. They are best 

 set under Game hens, but the hen pheasant may also be 

 allowed a share, which she will hatch well, but is not quite 

 so manageable with her chicks as the common hen. 



The early treatment will be as already described, but when 

 a few days say a week old, the board coops are placed in 

 regular rows out on a grass-field, which should be given up 

 to the purpose. A space round every coop should be mown 

 close, but the rest left standing to afford the poults shelter 

 from the heat, which they are unable to bear, suffering from 

 it almost more than from cold. The chicks should be shut in 

 at night, but let out strictly at daybreak every morning, as 

 they are early risers. 

 P2 



