MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 123 



when it has done so, repeat the operation ; then 

 release the victim, and go on to the next. Twice a 

 day of this artificial feeding will be found sufficient, 

 and the young turkeys will soon learn to peck for 

 themselves. Get them into a grass field as soon as 

 possible, away from other fowls " an old rooster " 

 has always a feeling of undying enmity towards 

 turkey poults and be careful to shut up the coop at 

 night, with a strong board in front to guard against 

 rats. 



Formerly it was the custom to cram young 

 pheasants for the first two or three days of their 

 existence in this or some similar manner, but the 

 practice has died out, being quite unnecessary, except 

 in the case of turkeys, pheasants and young chickens 

 being quite sharp enough to know what food is, and 

 where and how to apply it ; besides, the labour and 

 waste of time inseparable from the process of cram- 

 ming eight or nine hundred birds, or perhaps more, 

 are not for one moment to be thought of. 



In seasons as hot as the spring of 1887 it is a very 

 good plan to put the young birds into tolerably open 

 shady covers, within a few days of hatching out. 

 This certainly saved many of our pheasant poults 

 during that abnormally tropical season, in an ordinary 

 one, had the same treatment been carried out, the 

 drip from the trees would doubtless have soon 

 settled the lot. In pheasant rearing, as in aught 

 else, we must be guided by circumstances, and look 



