78 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 
bringing forward cases of broods hatched in dry fields where no water flows. My 
idea is that in a wild state they can wander in search of dew, and also feed upon 
more moist and natural food than the egg, meat, and herbs that are chopped for 
them when reared under hens. I am aware that it is quite a common practice 
amongst keepers to deprive the little birds of water, and I cannot but feel it to be 
a cruel as well as a mistaken one. I believe that dry food wants water to aid 
digestion; and when birds are kept all day in small wired enclosures in the full 
blaze of the sun, it seems to me that they must require water to keep them healthy; 
and I also think that if they have a little always in the pen, they will drink less 
than when only given to them once a day. I saw a brood last week that had 
only had water once, quite early in the morning; they were being fed again in 
the evening, but would eat nothing. I then ordered some water to see what they 
would do, and the little birds and the old hen went to it at once, and seemed as if 
they could never have enough.” And a third, writing to me on the same subject, 
states :—*T have been a rearer of pheasants for nearly thirty years. I give mine an 
unlimited supply of water at all stages of their growth, and I consider that it would 
be great cruelty to withhold it from them. I do not consider broods brought up by 
their mothers in dry fields where no water is to be found at all to the point. How 
can our poor artificial food compare with the thousand and one varieties they find 
in nature, full both of nourishment and moisture, with which it is impossible for us 
to supply them in confinement. JI quite endorse your suggestion as regards the 
great value of lettuce for pheasants. I have fed them for some years with it,.and 
they are very fond of it.” 
On the other hand many successful keepers do not give water, or only in very 
small quantity. One correspondent says:—“I know a keeper who rears a great 
number of pheasants each year, and he does not give them water till they are seven 
_or eight weeks old, at which age they begin to eat barley and corn, and require water 
to assist digestion. He says that pheasants in their wild state take the dew in the 
mornings, and only in very dry weather do the old hens take their broods to water. 
In very dry weather, when there is little or no dew, he sprinkles water twice a 
day on the grass, but never puts any down for them until the time before stated 
and when he waters the hens he does not allow the pheasants to drink. He says 
that water put down for them brings on diarrhea. By allowing the grass to grow 
here and there, it protects the birds from the sun, and the grass receives and holds 
the dew.” The writer of the following letter holds the balance very fairly between 
the opposing views :—‘The giving of water to young pheasants is a point on which 
rearers differ. Some consider it necessary, others that none should be given 
until the chicks are a month old, while others assert that any quantity may be 
given, provided it has first been boiled. Those who advocate the latter plan 
fancy that the gapeworms, which are supposed to exist in bad water, are 
