74 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



telli," or " Mrs. Marshall's School of Cookery " quality, 

 but just sufficient to attract the old lady's attention, 

 and cause her to cluck, and sound the domestic dinner 

 gong. This will draw the young chicks from the 

 shelter of the old bough, and they will seek the attrac- 

 tions of the new one, when, if you happen to be 

 parsimonious in the matter of boughs, you can pick 

 up the one first used, and with it repeat the operation 

 at your next coop. Attempting to drag or push the 

 coop and hen along the ground, neglecting this little 

 precaution, is very apt to end in the loss or destruc- 

 tion of one or two of your tiny charges, which, on the 

 good old Scotch principle of " Mony a mickle makes 

 a muckle," should always be avoided and guarded 

 against as far as possible. 



After a few days, as the birds get stronger, you can 

 pull the coop six or seven yards, and count your 

 young birds as they run into the grass and around the 

 coop, this being also an especially favourable moment 

 for detecting symptoms of diarrhoea, or any other 

 malady which may be likely to affect them. So much 

 for the right method of shifting birds, now a few 

 words as to the wrong one. 



This consists in pulling the coop its own length 

 from the place where it was, thus just shifting the 

 ground for the old hen, but not for the more impor- 

 tant portion of your charges, to whom as large an 

 area of fresh playground as is possible is a matter of 

 vital necessity. It is also a very grave, albeit very 



