70 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



and never forget that, both by day and night, the 

 most constant and assiduous watching of the young 

 birds is a sine qua non to success, remembering that 

 by day the enemies most to be expected are crows, 

 hawks, magpies, and weasels ; while at night polecats, 

 foumarts, stoats, and the various mustelidae, foxes, 

 dogs, cats, and humans, may be expected to look in, 

 if not properly guarded against. No doubt the 

 presence of a wooden or iron house in the field, or the 

 proximity of any sort of dwelling house, does act as 

 a deterrent to some out of this formidable list ; and 

 one head of vermin of any sort caught in a gin near 

 a coop and left there, has a most beneficial effect. 



Mr. Home kindly sends me some hints with regard to 

 catching up young birds, and also the rough sketch of a 

 new catching pen or yard, which he has just evolved, 

 but which, I take it, has not yet been put to any prac- 

 tical test. However, the idea of using a yard for catch- 

 ing purposes instead of a coop may prove distinctly 

 valuable, as birds, though perhaps unwilling to 

 actually enter the f coop at night, will always be 

 anxious to be near to it, and if they can be induced to 

 enter through the wire fenced apertures described by 

 Mr. Home, and remain in the yard, they can, of 

 course, be easily secured. But I imagine that Mr. 

 Home will have to keep a lot of yards, with different 

 sized apertures fitted into their sides, according to the 

 size of the birds that he wishes to secure. 



Mr. Home's special coops appear to have been 



