PHEASANT AND GAME PRESERVING 163 



fowls and their treatment, written in 1853. In 

 his Profitable Poultry he says of the food that 

 fowls pick up for themselves in field and by 

 hedgerow : "I do not think there is any other 

 kind of food which conduces so much to their 

 health and condition." 



In pursuance of his " nature " methods Teget- 

 meier was not in favour of the undue " cooping ' 

 of hens when rearing either their own or 

 pheasant chicks, and he even went so far as 

 to advocate the rearing of those delicate birds, 

 turkevs, in a state of freedom. In the last 

 edition (1898) of his Table Poultry, he singled out 

 the Elsenham method as an example of the best 

 way of rearing turkeys. This plan includes the 

 keeping of them in the pheasant coverts in 

 which they nest and hatch out their eggs without 

 artificial shelter of any kind, roost in the trees 

 all the year round and generally lead as natural 

 a life as possible. Sir Walter Gilbey refers to this 

 in the Introduction, and he writes further on 

 the point : " We do not keep any hen-pheasants 

 penned ; they are suffered to lay in the coverts, 

 and the eggs are collected and hatched out under 

 hens ; and when the chicks are put out in the 

 rearing-fields, the coops are placed at least 

 30 yards apart and moved very frequently to 

 ensure fresh ground." This system of rearing 

 pheasants received in the main Tegetmeier's 

 commendation, but, adds Sir Walter, " it was 



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