78 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



substance, and the fracture may be extended 

 until it comprises the whole circumference of the 

 egg ; after which, slowly and cautiously, the libe- 

 ration of the captive may be gradually completed. 



I am not now alluding to the system of bring- 

 ing up young pheasants in aviaries, fowl-yards, or 

 enclosures, but to the mode which 1 consider the 

 best adapted for rearing, out of doors, and turn- 

 ing down at once in game preserves, a number of 

 healthy poults during the summer, so that in the 

 ensuing autumn they shall be in as full an enjoy- 

 ment of liberty as is consistent with the nature of 

 the country or the local system of preservation. 



As soon as the young birds are hatched they 

 should be left with the mother for a day and a 

 night, during which time they require no food, 

 nature having provided nutriment for their im- 

 mediate sustenance in the yolk of the egg, 

 the residue of which has been recently drawn 

 into the body of the chicken and absorbed, but 

 the genial warmth of her body, under which 

 they all nestle, is of the greatest importance to 

 them. The first food that should be given them 

 is ants' eggs. These are, strictly speaking, the 

 cocoons of the large rufous ant (formica rufa) 

 which are tolerably plentiful in most great woods 

 during the summer. The nests are of consider- 

 able elevation, coneshaped, and constructed gene- 



