46 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



breast downwards, with its legs under the little 

 finger, then any long feathers of the right wing can 

 "be cut close. Having done so, turn the bird loose 

 and catch the next. When all are finished, return the 

 lien, and open the run, putting food before the hen. 

 She will soon call her birds, and they will return and 

 forget their first infantine trouble vaccination if you 

 like to call it so. Next time cut their wings the 

 opposite side." 



Keep a sharp eye upon any suspicious hen, or you 

 may loose a coop of birds, and as some hens will pick 

 the young ones to death as they hatch which mal- 

 practice can only be detected by the ear, as the boxes 

 must not be disturbed at that critical time, but cannot 

 occur in any incubator, where the process of hatching 

 may with impunity be watched through glass the 

 moral of this tale is obvious. Kill these vampire hens 

 straight off; don't sell them to your neighbours. It 

 is not impossible that you might have them palmed 

 off upon you again during the following season. 



Not long ago, a hen killed the whole of her fifteen 

 young ones, all of which had hatched. Fourteen were 

 dead, and the fifteenth was in her throat with its little 

 legs sticking out. 



But, having got back to the topic of hatching out, 

 let me, ere I forget it, call attention to the facility 

 which the incubator affords to assist any weakly or 

 misplaced chicken in its efforts to escape. A skilled 

 hand will hardly ever fail in this operation, any more 



