86 PRACTICAL PHEASANT REARING. 



on a dry windy day they will eat less food, as there 

 will be more insects about ; also, if ants be in the 

 field, less artificial nutriment will be necessary ; on a 

 very dry hot day they will require most food ; and on 

 wet days feed your very young birds inside the coop, 

 as the food gets stale and pasty by lying outside. 



Many keepers use boards to feed their young birds 

 upon. This is a mistake, as the boards require 

 constant scouring ; and also it is best to teach them 

 to run about and forage for themselves as soon as 

 possible. As the boards soon get stale and sour, and 

 a man with a lot of birds on hand cannot afford the 

 time to be always scouring and cleaning them, their 

 use is to be deprecated. 



For the purpose of preparing the food for the 

 young pheasants, you will require, fixed in some 

 convenient outhouse or shed, on a level floor, a 

 strong deal table, similar to a kitchen table, but with 

 a good high back running round three sides of it, to 

 prevent any waste of the food while mixing the 

 turning and tossing necessary to thoroughly amalga- 

 mate every particle rendering a spill on to the floor 

 by no means an impossible contingency. This table 

 should have a smooth planed surface, and stand firmly 

 on four stout hard legs; it should frequently be scoured, 

 and always kept scrupulously clean. 



A three-bladed chopper, with a wooden handle and 

 three horizontal sharp steel blades, something like a 

 flat iron cut out into partitions and sharpened up, or 



