76 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



tarns, but although they make excellent mothers, 

 yet these diminutive birds are incapable of cover- 

 ing more than eight pheasants' eggs efficiently, 

 while sixteen or eighteen may safely be confided 

 to the common dunghill fowl. The large Dork- 

 ing, from its great size, is often a favourite with 

 keepers ; but I have seen so many cases of un- 

 intentional infanticide committed by these huge, 

 clumsy -legged, five-toed matrons, that I cannot 

 conscientiously recommend them. The game- 

 hen, too, has her advocates, and as a careful 

 mother and watchful protector, none can sur- 

 pass her ; but woe to the unfortunate little mem- 

 bers of any neighbouring clutch of young 

 pheasants that may venture unwittingly within 

 the rails of her hutch : her hostility to them is 

 equalled only by her attachment to her own 

 brood. Now, as the lawn or piece of mowed 

 grass on which the birds are reared is generally 

 capable of accommodating several families, and as 

 the young poults will occasionally wander beyond 

 the precincts of their own domicile into an ad- 

 joining stronghold, it is doubtful whether the 

 truculent propensities of these feathered Ama- 

 zons are atoned for by their other good qualities. 

 I have generally found a cross between the 

 common dunghill hen and the game fowl, the very 

 best for the purpose ; but where breeding is car- 



