PHEASANTS 291 



but for hand rearing at Houghton he would have held it for 

 four days also, and entirely without hand rearing. This is not 

 the place to discuss partridges, except for the fact that the use 

 of dummy and clear eggs for those birds has been erroneously 

 attributed to Euston. Really it was an advance, and a very 

 great advance, on the Euston plan. But pheasants have been 

 handled on the nests by careful and clever keepers for many 

 years, although it appears to be only recently that it has come 

 to be known that partridges could also be treated familiarly, if 

 proper precautions were taken. The principal of these is not to 

 attempt to touch the nest with the bird upon it until she has 

 been sitting close for three days at least, and then to make no 

 sudden movement when approaching or handling the nest. If 

 these points are attended to, the bird will not leave her nest far, 

 if she leaves it at all, and will soon come back upon the retreat 

 of her supposed enemy. 



But whether this system of egg preservation is partially 

 practised or the eggs are wholly left to chance, they should all 

 be marked, either with indelible or invisible ink. The former 

 plan is of the most use in preventing egg-stealing, and the 

 latter is the most useful in bringing home the theft, and perhaps 

 in ridding a neighbourhood of an undesirable. The invisible 

 ink shows up as soon as eggs marked with it are inserted in an 

 appropriate solution. 



