60 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



Wet and stormy weather is best combatted by 

 putting an empty coop in front of the one containing 

 the interesting brood ; this forms an effectual shelter. 

 You wait "till the clouds roll by," and then remove 

 the assistant coop. Mem. : It is necessary to have a 

 lot of extra ones for this puipose, and to have your 

 coops all made the same size. This plan appears to 

 be preferable to the old custom of clapping a board 

 down in front of the bars of the coop in wet weather, 

 and confining hen and young ones within such very 

 narrow precincts. The extra coop gives extra run, 

 and enables the young brood to escape the eternal 

 dangers of their guardian's well meaning but occa- 

 sionally incautious feet. 



Arrange to keep birds of the same age in the same 

 part of the field ; the old proverb of the " little fleas " 

 comes in here, and if the lesser bipeds are kept a 

 little apart from the elders, they will not get so much 

 robbed of their food, and of their fair chance of what- 

 ever bonnes douches, in the shape of insects, &c., may 

 be knocking about. 



Should you elect to feed upon ants' eggs the 

 reasons for and against which will be discussed by 

 and by it may not be out of place to observe that 

 they should be collected in a zinc bucket with a close- 

 fitting lid, or other similar receptacle ; and this should 

 be filled with water for some time before the contents 

 are offered to the young birds, or the ants will sting 

 them so about the eyes and legs that the callow 



