54 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 
mation of the intestines. My conclusion is, that if allowed to have free access to 
acorns they eat more than they, me and consequently many die. Keepers: 
frequently depend too much upon acorns.’ 
With regard to the employment of animal food, such.as horseflesh, greaves, &c., 
I believe its use, except in the very smallest quantity, to be exceedingly injurious; 
nor do I approve of the spiced condiments so strongly recommended by the makers. 
The bodies of dead domestic animals can, however, be most advantageously utilized by 
allowing them to become thoroughly fly-blown, and then burying them under about 
a foot of soil in the pens, where the maggots go through the regular stages of growth, 
after which they work their way to the surface in order to effect their change into. 
chrysalids. They furnish an admirable supply of insect food for the birds, and 
give them constant occupation and exercise in scratching in the ground. Utilized 
in this manner, the bodies of dead fowls, or any small domestic animals, are perfectly 
inoffensive, and the result is most advantageous to the birds. 
The employment of crushed bones, as a substitute for the varied animal 
substances the pheasant feeds upon when in a. wild state, is strongly advocated by . 
some authors. Mr. F. Crook writes :—‘‘ We have seen many instances of game being 
perfectly cured of both eating their eggs and plucking each other, by the continual 
practice of giving a portion of well-smashed bones every day. These remarks apply 
more specially to the home pheasantries, in consequence of the absence of the natural. 
shell stuff they pick up when at liberty, but we would recommend some to be thrown 
about the feeding grounds of the preserves, as the highly nutritious nature of the 
elements of smashed fresh bones conduces remarkably to keep the birds together, 
particularly in very wet seasons, when the condition of the land renders it impossible 
for them to scratch about to the same extent.’ Should the aviary be situated on soil 
in which small stones are absent, these must be supplied; this is most a 
done by throwing in some fresh gravel once or twice a week. 
There is one point on which almost all the works treating on the manage- 
ment of pheasants are lamentably deficient, namely, enforcing the absolute necessity 
for a constant supply of fresh green vegetable food. The tender grasses in an 
aviary are soon eaten, and the birds, pining for fresh vegetable diet, become 
irritable, feverish, and take to plucking each other’s feathers. To prevent this, 
cabbages, turnip leaves—still better, waste lettuces from the garden, when 
going to seed—should be supplied as fast as they are eaten; the smaller the pen 
the greater the necessity for this supply. The late Dr. Jerdon, the distinguished » 
author of “The Birds: of India,” when visiting the pheasantries in the Zoological 
Gardens, said, in his emphatic manner, “ You are not giving these birds enough 
vegetable food. Lettuce! Lettuce!! Lettuce! !!° . From my long experience in 
breeding gallinaceous birds of all kinds, I can fully indorse his recommendation. 
Should these cultivated vegetables be not readily obtained, a good supply of 
