PHEASANTS 287 



has succeeded in producing big hatchings of pheasants, many 

 more than the birds would lay eggs in the ordinary course. 

 But the Duke of Grafton has denied that bad or dummy eggs 

 have been used at Euston, and consequently, although Blacker 

 pointed the way, he did not consummate the latest phase 

 of pheasant preservation, in which all the birds' eggs are 

 removed as laid, and are incubated under hens, while the 

 female pheasant is kept sitting on "clear" eggs, in order to 

 be ready to take a big batch of chipped eggs as soon as they 

 are ready. 



The object of this plan is that if the bird is killed, or Is made 

 to give up sitting by bad weather, the eggs are nevertheless not 

 injured, but are merely passed on to be divided amongst other 

 birds. 



It has been said that there is no advantage in this plan, 

 but one cannot help thinking that only lazy keepers and their 

 friends who sell game foods would say so. 



The argument is that the nests are not in danger from foxes 

 until just at the time of hatching. It is said that the birds lose 

 their scent when incubating, and that only when the chicks 

 break the shell is there any scent from the nests. As a matter of 

 fact there is very little scent from breeding birds whether they 

 are sitting or laying, but to say there is none, and that foxes 

 cannot find them, is a total mistake. 



Nests are taken by dogs and foxes, and by hedgehogs 

 and rats, at all times of the incubating period. If the birds 

 gave out as much scent as they do at other periods, there would 

 be no nests left in a fox country. But nature and the birds, 

 between them, do defeat the foxes and the vermin in a fair 

 proportion of cases. It has been affirmed that incubating alters 

 their system, and that the scent that before passed out through 

 the skin passes out with the excreta when the birds incubate. 

 That is to say, that there is a total change of system brought 

 about by the change of instinct. The stronger scent from the 

 excreta of sitting birds has been advanced as a proof of this. 

 The author will not discuss this theory or deny it, but he is 

 certain that the whole loss of scent can be accounted for in 



