THE OLD, OLD STORY 85 



often return. The keeper, passing by a sitting 

 pheasant, passes by as though he had seen nothing. 



The story of pheasant -rearing begins with the collec- 

 tion of eggs from wild nests and from penned birds. 

 Then comes the collection of broody hens to 

 P la y the P art of foster - m other. Then the 

 lime-washing of the nest-boxes. Hundreds of 

 wooden boxes, each compartment measuring fifteen 

 inches square, are placed in lines in a shed or an 

 open field ; the nests are roughly fashioned in the 

 boxes, of turf and soil, moss, meadow-hay, and straw. 

 And on the nests are set broody hens, beneath which, 

 when they have proved their worthiness, are placed 

 from fifteen to twenty eggs. Heaps of soaked corn 

 and pans of water are made ready, and once a day 

 the hens are lifted off their nests to be fed and watered, 

 and to allow fresh air to play on the eggs. A rope 

 runs on the ground before the boxes, and to this the 

 hens are tethered. The keeper lifts off and tethers 

 his hens at the rate of three or four to the minute. 



Seventeen is the regulation number of pheasant 

 eggs to be put beneath each hen, and seventeen 

 chicks are put with each hen in the coops in the 

 rearing-field. The most motherly hens are selected for 

 service on the rearing-field. Less careful mothers are 

 turned out when they have hatched the eggs, or, if 



