H2 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



important is a regular temperature in the artificial 

 hatching of eggs. The rational inference is that it 

 is equally important in the hatching of eggs by birds 

 in a wild state. One knows also that eggs must be 

 turned during incubation. So when the weather is 

 unseasonably cold, especially during the night (which 

 is always cold enough), not only do some of the 

 eggs in a nest become ruined by being chilled, but, 

 owing to the change of position in the nest, most 

 of the clutch may be spoiled, or their embryos so 

 weakened that either they do not hatch at all or 

 produce useless chicks. 



After a breeding season which has not appeared 

 to be over-cold or over-wet, one may be disappointed 

 at the supply of pheasants when shooting begins. 

 There may have been a good hatch, and plenty of 

 fine, newly-hatched broods may have been seen 

 about. All may be well while the chicks still are 

 small enough to allow the whole brood to find 

 accommodation beneath their mother, and so warmth. 

 But when the fast-growing chicks become so large 

 that some must remain in the cold, a continual 

 scrambling goes on for the inside berths. And so 

 it ends by the rearing to maturity of no more birds 

 than if the brood originally had been half as big. 

 If all hen pheasants left for stock could be relied 

 upon to rear half a dozen chicks each, there would 

 be no need for hand- rearing at least, where there 

 were no foxes. And still less, if pheasants could 



