36 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



mortality is, I feel quite certain, most decidedly 

 effected by the use of an incubator for the last two or 

 three days of the early history of the pheasant poult. 

 The heat is uniform ; there are no old hens' legs to 

 get in the way and crush the fragile brood. There is 

 no maternal impatience should the weakly chick be 

 somewhat slow in bursting its bonds ; and, moreover,, 

 when an old hen has her nest half full of eggs and 

 half of hatched young ones, she cannot be expected 

 to do her duty to both, and one or other have to go to 

 the wall. 



No; have your incubator by all means. We use 

 Hearson's at Rhiwlas, and have always four of the 

 largest size in strong work ; but let everybody select 

 the one he most approves of, and place it in some 

 quiet, unfrequented room or outhouse, where there is 

 plenty of fresh air, but not in a conservatory, where 

 of all places variations of temperature are most 

 apparent ; nor in a position where the wind can blow 

 in at one side and out at the other. Let the machine 

 be heated, should the weather be cold, so that the egg- 

 drawers may stand at a degree or two above 104, 

 and, should the weather be hot (an unlikely occur- 

 rence in April), a degree or two below 104, which is 

 the best temperature for the drawer when the air in 

 the room or hatching house in which the incubator is 

 placed stands between 50 and 70. Instructions as 

 to the working of incubators it would be, to my mind, 

 waste of space to give. The directions issued by the 



