62 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 
sat and hatched thirteen birds. She allowed me to lift her off the nest, and I 
took her and her young and put them in a hen coop, and she has reared them 
well, and quite as tame as any of my hens that I have rearing pheasants, allows 
me to drag the coop on to fresh ground, and never flutters. As soon as I throw 
the food in front of the coop she commences calling her young. They are now 
about the size of landrails, and the whole of them living.” 
To prevent the fatal habit of eating the eggs, no care should be spared, as 
it is entirely subversive of any hope of success in rearing. As before stated, it may 
be in great part prevented by the frequent collection of the eggs. Mr. F. Crook 
truly remarks: “The male bird in confinement frequently takes to ‘pecking the 
eggs, at first only for want of something more natural to do. Having no space, 
no fields and copses to roam about and amuse himself in, he pecks and pushes 
the egg about. At last it gets chipped, and he tastes of its contents, and he will 
not then leave it until consumed, and the abominable habit is confirmed in him. 
As it is usually the male bird that commits these vexing faults, a loose hurdle 
forming a corner pen, into which he can be driven, will be found most useful, as 
he should only be allowed amongst the hens after they have laid their eggs for 
the day; and all having been removed, a wooden egg may be exchanged for the real 
one, which will soon tire him out; and the bad habit may be cured, and no loss 
of time occur in the breeding season. But whether the birds are troublesome or 
not in this respect, the attendants must make periodical visits to the breeding pens 
for the purpose of collecting the eggs, as they should never be allowed to remain 
about.’’ 
There is no doubt but that bad management and improper feeding tend to 
promote this serious evil. The frequent disturbance of the birds by the inquisitiveness 
of visitors, bad and improper stimulating food, without a sufficiency of green 
vegetable diet, want of cleanliness in the pen, an insufficient or dirty supply of 
water, and want of grit to assist digestion, all aid in developing the habit. Mr. 
J. EF. Dougall, in his “Shooting Simplified,” suggests the following mode of 
preventing the practice when once established: “In pheasantries, means should 
be taken to prevent the eggs being destroyed by the male bird; and as it is 
impossible to keep continual watch, the hen should be induced to seek a dark 
secluded corner by forming for her an artificial nest covered thinly with straw. 
Under this straw have a net of mesh exactly wide enough to allow the egg to 
drop through into a box below, filled with soft seeds or shellings, leaving only. a 
few inches between; the cock bird cannot then reach the egg, which falls uninjured 
on the soft seeds below, and is safely removed.” 
Mr. Leno writes: “I have invariably found the cocks to be the culprits. 
As soon as a pecked egg is found, the cock bird should be removed, and the hens 
left by themselves for a few days, to see whether he is or is not the guilty one;. 
