72 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



" Now pheasants are stupid birds, and invariably 

 run to the outside, so when once in they will not 

 attempt to pass out by these wire doors, which are 

 merely side entrances, like wings in a theatre ; once 

 in, they are safe, and by an armhole can easily be 

 managed. I think this will save much trouble, for, if 

 once they can be taught to pass in at these ' wings/ 

 they can easily be taken on catching day, and these 

 runs will require to be used only just for a day or two 

 at catching-up time." 



And now I think it will be as well to treat of a 

 most necessary item in successful pheasant-rearing, 

 and one which comes synonymous with, and is almost 

 as important as, the method of mixing and dis- 

 tributing the food to the young birds. I allude to the 

 shifting of the positions of the coops containing the 

 hen and young birds, so as to give them fresh ground 

 daily. 



In this, as in other branches of the subject, there is, 

 as I have had occasion to remark before, a right way 

 and a wrong way, and the right way, as usual, gives a 

 little more trouble to the operator than the easier but 

 more unreliable plan. Both the right way and the 

 wrong it will be advisable to discuss. 



The coops containing the young birds, as soon as 

 the latter are old enough to permit of the removal of 

 the little yards or pens by which their liberty is at 

 first curtailed, must be moved about the field to fresh 

 ground twice every day. Thus, if you feed, as recom- 



