n6 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



and years. See with what care he chooses a spot 

 for their cradling in a coop lime-washed within to 

 virgin whiteness; how tenderly he handles each 

 fluffy morsel ! Then how careful he is to see 

 that each chick is safely brooded beneath the hen 

 before he fastens the shutter and leaves the coop ! 

 Again and again he will return and kneel down 

 to peep within, lest a chick may have wandered 

 from the life-giving warmth. With what care he 

 will mince the hard-boiled egg for their first feed ! 

 and how proudly he draws your attention to their 

 sturdiness by saying, * And don't they nip about !' 



There are long hours with plenty of hard work 

 attached to pheasant-rearing, and there is a good 

 deal of luck. I never had better luck than I did with 

 the first batch of pheasants I ever reared entirely by 

 myself. I put out a hundred and seventy chicks 

 in ten coops, in two rows, and never had a moment's 

 worry with them. I was able to take to covert a 

 hundred and sixty-four birds. I never did better. 

 The second batch, soon after they were hatched, 

 came in for some days of icy cold wind, which, 

 besides nearly blowing them bodily away when 

 they ventured outside the coops, withered them 

 up. Then, when the weather had improved, and 

 the survivors were going on nicely, blindness made 

 its appearance. Only a few birds died from it, 

 but of the afflicted which recovered, several never 

 did any good, first failing to get their head- 



