(]0 T'HEASANT.H FOR COVERT, H AND AVIARIES. 



Letter, to my uiiiid, is to place tlieir food in liuts. A plioasant 

 luit is an open slied, with tlie roof fixed on four posts, with a 

 jiiilo all i-ound for rafter plate, the rafters of rough poles tied 

 on with withies, thatched first with long faggots tied up 

 with three or four withies of brusliwood with all the leaves 

 on, and alhjwed to hang down or over the rafter plate 

 two feet or thereabotits. The thatch used should be 

 stnall brushwood, reeds, or sti'aw. An open trellis flocu' 

 of poles should be raised two feet from the g'ronnd, and 

 on this tlie corn in straw should be laid for the pheasants to 

 help themselves. In these huts the pheasants find shelter, 

 cijmfort, and cover in rough, wintry, and seveio weather. 

 Care should be taken to have plenty of dry dust on the floor 

 underneath for the pheasants to bask in. This is a most 

 essential ])rov'ision — cpnte as much so for pheasants as for our 

 poultry — for it is quite as natural for them t(.> dust to clean 

 themselves. It is a fact within easy observation how the 

 pheasant searches out the fiase of an old, dry, dusty pollard 

 tree or hedge bank to bask in the dust. Besides, every 

 grain of ccjrn that falls through the open feeding floor is 

 searched for and found in this dust. Underneath and on the 

 dusty floor is a safe and convenient place, sheltered from 

 severe frost, &c., to receive any other kind of food, such as 

 refuse potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, mangolds, swede 

 turnips, cabbage, Spani.sh chesnuts, acorns, beechnuts, a 

 few raisins, Indian corn, <_ir anything else you wish the 

 pheasants to hav-e. Such changes cjf f(H)d cast about 

 tlieir feeding sheds are sure to secure them keeping 

 [iretty well to covert, ]iarticularly if they lia\-e water 

 at hand. I have seen Isirge expenditures for well dio-gino- 

 or iov the conveyance of water by ram and pi])i's from 

 some stream ;i,t a distance ; but the Ijest and simjilest 

 |ilan to keep up a general supply of water for the season 

 the pheasant is in covert, is certainly the shallow catch- 

 pool system- In my humble o])inion, it is the most 

 natural, convenient, and inexpensive plan of all I have seen 



