84 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIABIES 



There is one point on which, almost all the works treating 

 on the management of pheasants aTe lamentably deficient, 

 namely, enforcing the absolute necessity for a constant supply 

 of fresh green vegetable food. The tender grasses in small 

 pens are soon eaten, and the birds, pining for fresh vege- 

 table 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 

 G-ardens, said, in his emphatic manner, " You are not giving 

 these birds enough vegetable food. Lettuce ! Lettuce ! ! 

 Lettuce ! ! ! " Prom my long experience in breeding galli- 

 naceous birds of different species, I can fully indorse his 

 recommendation . 



Should these cultivated vegetables be not readily obtained, 

 a good supply of freshly cut turves, with abundance of young 

 grass and plenty of clover, should be furnished daily. 



Instead of placing a cock and three to five hens in a pen, 

 as recommended, some persons advocate putting cut-winged 

 hens only in enclosures open at the top, so that they may be 

 visited by the wild males. This method can only be followed 

 in the vicinity of well-stocked coverts, and even under these 

 conditions it is not always successful, the eggs frequently not 

 being fertilised. A very practical correspondent writes as 

 follows : " It is sometimes recommended to put pheasant hens 

 into small enclosures open at the top, so that the wild cocks 

 might get to them. I suppose generally that plan is 

 successful, but in my own case it has failed entirely. I had 

 plenty of eggs, but no chickens. My keeper gathered the 

 eggs regularly and carefully, and they were duly set under 

 common hens ; but not one single egg came off. I know the 

 wild cocks came close to the enclosure, but I never actuallv 

 found one inside. I followed Baily's instructions implicitly ; 



