TREATING OF THE PHEASANT AND ITS EGG. 7 



tary and trivial points connected with his business ere 

 the word " finis " is added to these pages, so I proceed 

 to point out to him what a very much better position 

 he is in should he be 'cute enough to discover her 

 nest before she has contributed her full quantum, as 

 by sneaking away an egg every day he can thus 

 befool the poor innocent into laying a considerable 

 number more than she originally intended. A spoon 

 at the end of a walking-stick is useful for this purpose, 

 as the scent of the human hand has a tendency to 

 make all wild birds forsake their nests ; and some 

 bran at the bottom of a basket or box in which the 

 eggs can be packed, small-end downwards, is a neater 

 and more business-like method of conveyance home 

 for the fragile spoil than the time-honoured vehicle of 

 the keeper's inside hare pocket. And here it will 

 perhaps be as well to explain why pheasants', and, 

 for that matter, all other eggs also, if required at 

 a future period for incubation, should invariably, 

 whether in a basket for carrying or in a drawer for 

 keeping, be packed with the small or pointed end 

 downwards, and the larger uppermost. The condi- 

 tion of things being so, the larger or round end upper- 

 most, the embryo is in contact with the air space, and 

 is prevented from coming in contact with the shell 

 and getting glued to it by the drying up of albumen 

 between it and the shell. The same remarks will apply 

 tp the " turning" of the eggs during the process of 

 incubation, of which more anon. Let us hark back to 



