80 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



tops of barley, leeks, boiled rice, Emden groats, 

 oatmeal, &c. They are all excellent, but I am 

 satisfied that they are almost always given at too 

 early a period. In a state of nature their food for a 

 long time would be wholly insectile. Now as it is 

 not in our power to procure the quantity and va- 

 riety of small insects and larva which the mother- 

 bird so perseveringly and patiently finds for them, 

 we are obliged to have recourse to ants' eggs, as 

 easily accessible and furnishing a considerable 

 supply of the necessary sort of aliment within 

 a small compass. Ants' eggs, indeed, are the 

 right hand of the keeper when bringing up young 

 pheasants ; without them he may almost despair 

 of success, and with a good stock of them his 

 birds will thrive apace and escape many diseases 

 to which they would otherwise be continually 

 liable. 



A large sward of smooth green turf, planted 

 here and there with shrubs and evergreens ; or 

 a small meadow, newly mown on purpose, near 

 the keeper's house, and bounded by a coppice 

 or plantation, afford good sites for the nursery. 

 On this the coops should be placed at intervals 

 of several yards from each other. These should 

 be shaped like the roof of a cottage, open be- 

 neath, boarded at the back and at each gable 

 end, but with rails in front sufficiently wide to 



