118 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THH AVIARY. 
of the legs or wing, for injury is certain to ensue; but take up the bird with 
both hands tightly round the body over the wings. This is the only safe way of 
capture, and they then may be taken about without injury at all, either to their 
plumage or to themselves. 
“JT would advise aviaries for their accommodation to be covered in entirely 
from, the rain, as nothing tends so much to keep them in perfect feather; and then 
it will not be by any means difficult to guard them against another great annoyance 
—that of cats prowling about during the night and at twilight. From this cause 
numbers of pheasants of either kind have been destroyed, not from an actual hurt 
received from the cat, but from the birds in their fright flying furiously against 
the roof or the wirework, and scalping themselves. This may be prevented. by 
letting a ‘tar-sheet’ be fixed closely every night, to cover the whole of the open 
work of the aviary. It has this double service: it prevents sudden rain wetting 
the sanded floor and causing damp (producing rheumatism in the inmates), and by 
being opaque prevents the shadow of passing cats being seen; for if they see cats 
at night, the birds will fly, and thus seriously damage themselves. I found simple 
canvas for this purpose of no use whatever, being semi-transparent; the tar-sheet is 
effective from its density. It is on moonlight nights that the greatest danger is to 
be feared, for on these occasions the cats come very long distances, attracted no 
doubt by scent, and when they have once found your birds will be sure to pay them 
almost nightly visits. As the birds are valued for their beauty, it will add 
considerably to the perfection of their plumage to place a sufficiency of perches 
for the accommodation; not spare and thin ones, but made of deal spars about 
1lin. square, the sharp edges being taken off with a plane. This will prevent their 
tails rubbing, and, whether intended for attraction or sale, add not a little to their 
value. 
“Tn selecting the brood stock, a cock with four or even five hens will be a 
fair proportion. I always prefer a cock bird of the second year, and hens of 
the same age (because they lay far more eggs), though the eggs of pullets of the 
preceding year are productive. The young hens will only lay ten or twelve eggs in 
a season, but the older birds when carefully managed will frequently lay thirty to 
forty eggs in the same period. These eggs require a longer incubation than those 
of common fowls, as they generally hatch on the twenty-fourth day, though I have 
repeatedly known them continue in the shell a day longer; therefore, if desirous of 
rearing a chicken or two with them (to insure greater familiarity), the fowls’ eggs 
must be deposited accordingly, as nothing tends so sadly to unsettle a hen at 
hatching time as some portion of her chicks coming a day or two previously to the 
remainder, and it not unfrequently leads to the desertion of her nest. 
“The eggs should be at once removed from both Golden and Silver 
Pheasants directly they are laid; the latter being especially inclined to peck 
