378 THE GAME PRESERVER'S GUIDE. 



oval ring of iron wire is attached to a pole, six or seven 

 feet long, and a loose bag net fastened to it all round. 

 Armed with this, the keeper enters the pen, and readily 

 places the net over the pheasant, which may then be laid 

 hold of in the usual way. All the strong wing feathers 

 must be cut close to the flesh, and this must be repeated 

 during the moulting, or they will grow long enough to allow 

 of the birds flying over the hurdles. Pulling the feathers 

 out should never be practised, because they do not grow 

 again as strongly as before. 



The best food for adult pheasants and partridges in con- 

 finement is barley, wheat, split Indian corn, rice, and buck- 

 wheat each of them being used for a term, and then 

 changed for another. Green food such as cabbage, turnips, 

 arid turnip tops, lettuce or mangold wurtzel, should also be 

 supplied for them to peck at ; and some kind of animal food 

 must occasionally be given to supply the place of the insects 

 which would be taken if the birds were at liberty. Chopped 

 beef or horseflesh is the best, unless the bones with a little 

 meat on them can be put down; for the birds like to peck 

 the flesh off them by degrees, and not to be gorged with it 

 in large quantities at a time. Flesh maggots answer still 

 better; but they can only be supplied during the summer 

 season. Earth worms, when they can be procured, are 

 excellent at all times. Plenty of dust, with a fair proportion 

 of sand and lime, should always be within reach of par- 

 tridges and pheasants. 



The diseases to which these birds are subject during their 

 rearing are chiefly diarrhoea, the gapes, and cramp. Diar- 

 rhoea may be relieved by giving rice boiled in alum water, 

 adding a few grains of black pepper, if the birds are much 

 exhausted by it. The gapes is one of the most troublesome 

 of the diseases to which these birds are subject; it is caused 

 by a parasitic worm in the windpipe, which is several weeks 

 growing to its full size, gradually causing suffocation by 

 filling up the air-passage. Nothing does any good but the 

 dislodgement of the worm, and this may be effected by means 

 of a feather dipped in equal parts of olive oil and spirit of 

 turpentine, which is then passed down the windpipe in front 

 of the throat, and not into the gullet, which is behind. Some 



