370 THE GAME PRESERVER'S GUIDE. 



neighbours. No doubt a law which should make the sale 

 of the eggs of game birds altogether illegal would add to the 

 difficulty of procuring them, but then it would still more 

 diminish the necessity for them, because there would be more 

 nests naturally brought to maturity. 



There are three modes in which eggs may legitimately be 

 obtained : 1st, From nests which- are found in mowing 

 grass, and which are chiefly those of partridges; 2ndly, by 

 taking away a certain number from each nest without dis- 

 turbing the old birds; and 3rdly, by keeping tame pheasants 

 in confinement for the express purpose. Of these the first is 

 the least useful, because the eggs are almost always partially 

 set on, and unless a " broody" bantam hen is at hand they 

 will be rapidly spoiled. Machines known as Incubators 

 have been suggested in lieu of these birds, but there are few 

 gamekeepers who can manage them; and, I believe, they 

 would seldom pay for their cost. Some keepers take care to 

 have three or four hens always sitting during the mowing 

 season, and by substituting the eggs of the partridge or phea- 

 sant for their own, the value of which is not very great, the 

 former are brought to maturity. This resource, however, is 

 not one on which great reliance can be placed. 



The second plan is one which is largely practised by some 

 most successful game-preservers, but it is chiefly applicable 

 to pheasants. As I have already remarked, very few hen- 

 pheasants rear more than eight birds, though they lay 

 from ten to fourteen eggs, or even sometimes a greater 

 number. The difference between the number of the eggs 

 and of the resulting birds arises from the death, produced by 

 exposure to the weather, of those young birds which the 

 mother cannot cover with her wings ; and it is found that if 

 she has only seven or eight to begin with she will rear them 

 all, and they will also be far stronger and better fed birds, 

 from the hen being enabled to procure more food for them. 

 The keeper, therefore, takes care to find each nest, and 

 while the birds are on the evening feed he takes from it all 

 above seven or eight, which are left to be hatched in the 

 usual way. In an ordinary preserve this ought to give 

 sufficient eggs for artificial rearing, with the addition of the 

 third plan, to be next described. 



