THE REARING FIELD. 61 



brood will have to fight shy of what they in reality 

 love best ; for remember, if you begin to feed upon 

 ants' eggs, there is but one way to change the 

 " menu ; " but of this more anon. I am writing for 

 people who, like myself, are not blessed with a 

 superabundance of ants' eggs. 



Peg down a good bunch of birch boughs near each 

 coop for shelter for the young birds when the wooden 

 run is removed ; under these twigs they get shelter 

 from both hawks and too glaring a sun. I say 

 " birchen boughs " advisedly, as being more supple 

 and pliant any schoolboy will back up this assertion 

 and consequently easier for the tender fledgelings 

 to move under and push about in ; add to which, that 

 the leaves and bark stay longer upon birch than upon 

 any other kind of bough, and the advantage of their 

 use becomes at once apparent. 



Have little earthen pans put about handy for the 

 chicks to drink out of ; these should not contain pure 

 water, but that element strongly impregnated with 

 camphor, to keep off the gapes regular " camphor 

 julep " in fact. It is best prepared by keeping the 

 camphor tied up in muslin in buckets in different 

 parts of the field, and filling the saucers from these 

 as required. The liquid, to be efficacious, must taste 

 almost unpleasantly strong of the juice of the Indian 

 laurel tree, and the birds will not like it at first 

 sneezes, throwing up of little heads, and opening 

 wide of bills being plain enough symptoms of their 



