76 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



time they get cold, and return for warmth and comfort 

 under their parental guardian ; it is pretty sure, 

 -especially in damp weather, to be some time before 

 they again emerge to tackle your contribution, and aP 

 this time the food is getting stale, and every moment 

 less nourishing and more harmful to the birds. 



As I am anxious to treat of each operation in 

 pheasant rearing as it comes in turn, I will defer my 

 remarks upon food for another chapter, merely quoting 

 Mr. Carnegie, who, in his valuable work on Game 

 Preserving, says, at page 35, " Of the many prepared 

 pheasant foods, the less said the better ; they are for 

 the most part expensive, and inferior to good honest 

 grain," &c. ; in fact, they are excellent specimens of 

 what Hosea Biglow calls " Scarabaeus Bombilator, 

 vulgo dictus Humbug." Spratts is the best, but even 

 that we do not find so nutritious or economical as 

 what we manufacture for ourselves. 



Meanwhile, buy a sausage machine. As to the use 

 of that implement of modern science, it is extremely 

 valuable to people who can afford to use up a certain 

 quantity of boiled rabbits for their birds, or who do 

 not care to go to the expense of using " Spratt's 

 Crissel," which it is my duty most strongly to recom- 

 mend. The flesh of the rabbits is passed through the 

 machine, and forms a most valuable adjunct to the 

 other ingredients of which the meal should be com- 

 posed, the strippings of, say, a leg and a shoulder 

 being about sufficient to mix up with a quart of food, 



