166 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



other's food were effectually avoided. A quantity 

 of food, also a dish containing a supply of fresh 

 water, were placed beside each peg. Seventeen 

 pheasants' eggs are placed under an average-sized 

 hen, and the keeper who sees fifteen chicks out of 

 this number is well pleased. A dry, hot season is 

 considered worse than a warm damp one for hatch- 

 ing purposes, and during the prevalence of the 

 former kind of weather the eggs are slightly 

 sprinkled with water whilst the hen is off feeding. 

 In spite, however, of this helpful precaution many 

 chicks die in their shells, apparently without the 

 necessary strength to break forth. In addition to 

 dogs chained up at different points, this hatchery 

 was encircled by a fine copper wire, placed about 

 a couple of feet from the ground and attached to 

 the trigger of an alarm gun affixed to the window- 

 sill of the keeper's sleeping-room, from which he 

 could instantly bolt after any prowling egg-stealer. 



Pheasants' eggs vary considerably in intensity of 

 coloration. Lord Walsingham's head-keeper told 

 me that stiff clay land on which pheasants feed 

 produces dark- coloured eggs, and a light, sandy soil 

 pale-coloured ones, and this contention he certainly 

 supported by several instances which he brought 

 under my notice, although other keepers to whom 

 I have mentioned the circumstance have no faith 

 in its accuracy. 



One of the most marvellous provisions of Nature 

 for the protection of a bird during a vitally im- 

 portant period of its history is the one first pointed 

 out by Mr. Tegetmeier of the Field, a veteran 

 pheasant-rearing authority. He discovered that 

 whilst a hen pheasant is sitting on her eggs in a 

 wild state the natural scent thrown off her body 

 at all other seasons of the year has the course of 



