FEEDING IN COVEBTS. 



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corn is lieginning to deci'easp, feed t'ri)iu the liauil^ daih'; and 

 in ordei' to ensuro I'egularit)', allow une man to di.stribnle at 

 the feeding-place, among the decaying liarley-straAv a.nd 

 beanliaidiu, a small Ijagfnl of beans and oailey, as early as he 

 can find his way to the spot in the nnirning-, cimcealing the 

 corn as well as lie is able ; later in the day, say towards 

 three or four in the afternoon, again deposit a mixture of 

 barley and white peas, concealing the corn as Ijefore. In this 

 way scarcely a grain of corn is lost. Woodpigeons and jays 

 will sometimes intrude ; but^ with attention in concealing the 

 corn and punctuality in feeding, any waste worth notice may^ 

 be prevented, and by observing how many birds come up to 

 tlieir food, it is easy to discover wdien anything is going 

 wrong, as the least disturbance will make pheasants shy, and 

 will be enough to put the keeper on the alert to discover the 

 cause. 



AVhen fed by band m this manner, a great variety of food 

 may be used. J\Iai/,e is certainly one of the best ; weight 

 for weiglit it is usually much cheaper than barley, is better 

 relished by tlie pheasants, is far more fattening, and it 

 possesses the great recommendation of not being so readily 

 devoured by the sparrows, especially if the large, coarse, and 

 cheaper varieties are purchased. A correspondent, who has 

 kept pheasants for many years, and taken much troutile t(j 

 ascertain their preference Ibr difterent kinds of food, states, 

 as a resnlt of his experience, that " they prefer maize or 

 Indian corn to any other food that can l;e given to them. 

 1 have frequently given the pheasants that come regularly to 

 my window to be fed equal parts (jf Indian corn, peas, snndl 

 hyi-se-beans, wdieat, barley, and oats, and they invariably take 

 them in the order in wduch i have written them. I have also 

 fre(|aeni]v done the same thing with those I keep shut np for 

 laying, and always with the same results. Pheasants that 

 I have had from elsewhere to put with them in conhuement, 

 and that have never seen maize, take to it in a couple of days, 

 and then, like the others, will eat nothing else so long as 



