HATCHING OUT AND INCUBATORS. 45 



follow your gardener as he digs. This makes them 

 grow up tame, and instead of having birds dashing 

 themselves to pieces in the aviaries, they will feed 

 from your hand. Remember, tame hens will make 

 tame chicks, and the tame chicks will grow up into 

 tame pheasants. I do not like placing the coops too 

 near each other, lest a bird before it know its own 

 coop enter a strange one, when it is apt to be pecked 

 by the hen and injured before it can escape. 



" Cutting Wings. After a short time the long or 

 flight feathers of the wings grow, and you must 

 watch, for the birds if suddenly alarmed, are apt to- 

 fly over the enclosure or wall. To cut them in the 

 easiest and safest way you require some experience. 

 I learnt this by having the hens jump about and break 

 the legs and backs of the little ones when I went to 

 catch them, for it is no easy matter to catch a little 

 pheasant in a coop. When necessary to cut their 

 wings, proceed in the following manner : Before 

 letting them out in the morning, put some food in the 

 run and entice them all there, then drop the board 

 between the coop and run. Remove the hen and 

 shut her in a spare coop or basket. Remove the 

 board, drive the little birds into the coop, replace the 

 board and they are all safe, then proceed to catch 

 them one at a time through the hole in the roof of 

 the coop. Throw a sack over the hole between each 

 operation, or the young birds may give you the 

 slip. Hold the bird in the hollow of the left hand, 



