

PHEASANTS' EGGS 69 



loses nothing in the telling, while it gains a good deal 

 from the envy on the brother keeper's face. 



By the middle of April, the gamekeeper finds that a 

 few of his pheasants are sitting. They are the older 

 hens. Those that begin to lay early in April 



^ not ^ en * a y more tnan ten or twelve 

 eggs before beginning to sit. But it is 

 not unusual for a young hen to lay fifteen, 

 seventeen, or even more eggs. That the older hens 

 should lay fewer eggs suggests that they have no 

 more than they can furnish with the heat necessary 

 for hatching. Later on, in warmer weather, a pheasant 

 can manage half as many eggs again as in early spring. 

 The old hens have eggs well on the way towards 

 hatching before hens still in their first year have begun 

 to lay. Pheasants commonly lay eggs in each other's 

 nests. We have known a pheasant even to lay eggs 

 in a thrush's nest, built on the ground beneath a 

 furze-bush. Like the nest, three of the four thrush's 

 eggs were destroyed by the intruder. The keeper 

 well knows how to take advantage of this slovenly 

 habit of his pheasants. About ten days before the 

 time when he expects them to begin to lay in earnest, 

 he makes up a number of false nests, into which he 

 puts either imitation nest-eggs, or addled eggs saved 

 from the last season. Having some respect for the 

 sweetness of his pocket, he takes the precaution of 



