PHEASANT CHICKS 117 



a day is provided. In his kitchen the keeper pre- 

 pares a thin meat soup, sometimes of sheeps' heads ; 

 this is boiled, then cooled, chopped lettuce and onion, 

 and barley and other meals are added, and then the 

 rations of the pudding-like mass are rolled into small 

 pellets. Over the keeper's kitchen the keeper's wife 

 has no jurisdiction. In some sheltered corner from 

 which he can keep an eye on his birds he builds him- 

 self a fireplace of two parallel rows of bricks open at 

 each end, so that he may burn long sticks and save 

 himself the labour of chopping wood if pressed for 

 time. Sometimes he will get the village blacksmith 

 to fashion a sort of iron gallows from which to hang 

 his great cooking-pots, each containing eight or nine 

 gallons, and of no small weight. By November 

 many keepers have cooked the last meal for their 

 pheasants others may be preparing a final supper, 

 whistling till their jaws ache to call the birds to 

 the meal on the morrow to do their utmost to 

 send the long-tails to destruction. 



" Mothering " is the factor which makes all the 

 difference between a moderately good and a very 

 good season for young pheasants. A hen 

 P neasan t> when her chicks are quite small, 

 can easily give warmth and shelter to a 

 dozen or more ; after the first week or so some have 

 to go without, and unless the weather is fine and 



