208 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



betrin tu lav till the eiul of April, but hiiil vitv freely, those 

 iu one pen averaging o\'er tliirtj' eggs a lieu. \'irtuiilly all 

 the eggs proved fertile. They hatched extremely ^vell, and 

 the strong chicks proved fully as easy to rear as those from 

 the ordinary pheasant. They wei-e fed ou custard aud 

 oatmeal, &c., as recommended by Tegetmeier. They were 

 brought up in fields oi: standing corn and buckwheat, sur- 

 rounded by wii-e fences ten feet high, and the farm-yard hens 

 employi'il as foster mothers were at largo in these fields. 

 The birds were pinioned when live days old. I wanted them 

 to be a.ble to fly a little, and severed the wing joint with 

 scissors, so as to leave them with two flight feathers. This 

 has piroved a costl_y blunder, fur with only these two flight 

 feathers the bii'ds coukl lly over the ten feet of wire with the 

 greatest ease. It was ((uite a liusiness to catch them in 

 Octidjer, when I moved into Sussex, and indeed I left several 

 birds in the w(.)ods of Cunholt I'ark. I'efore turning them 

 down in Sussrx I removed the two flight featliers from each 

 bird, but despite all precautiijiis some of th(> Ihi'ds siill Qy 

 over the wire. In shooting my woods several were seen, aud 

 two wei'e shot, being mistaken for ordiiiarv wild birds, no 

 well did tliey ftj. Each pen consists of several acres of 

 woo<l, jiastnre, and arable land, wdiich will lie sown with corn 

 aud buckwdieat. Only live hens and one (unrelated) cijck run 

 to the aci'e, therefore this breed of pheasant should remain 

 free from all civilised diseases. I may mention that I have 

 noticed that the birds are extremeh' fond of the flowiu' (_if the 

 common charhjck." 



By the courtesy of Colonel Suuderlaml I had the pleasure 

 of exhibiting at the British Ornithologists' (Jlub, on Wed- 

 nesday, December 10, ]9n.3, a magnificent stuffed specimen 

 of a. male Prince of Wales's jiheasanf, in superb pihimage and 

 of great si/.e. It was the hrst seen that had lieoii rt-ared 

 wild in our coverts during that yea.r. I also showeil 

 an imported hen in the flesli, which, although it had the 

 hole of the primary feathers of one wdng cut off^ was 



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