THE NEW FORESTRY. 2.1 



practised — the artificial system of raising birds under hens in 

 coops, and the natural system of allowing the pheasants to 

 breed wild in the coverts under due care. Assuming that the 

 latter system may be carried out, at least as successfully as the 

 former, there can be no doubt about its being by far the easiest 

 and most economical, and the one which relieves the keeper of 

 much care and anxiety which would be better bestowed else- 

 where. We have seen both systems at work on an extensive 

 scale on different estates, and we have taken great pains to 

 get independent testimony oh the subject. 



The natural system we became quite familiar with on an 

 extensive and most successful scale, many years ago, in one 

 of the coldest and wettest districts in Scotland, where it has 

 been always practised ; and the artificial system we are also 

 quite familiar with, as practised in England, and it is ; here 

 proposed to discuss the two systems separately. 



What takes place under the artificial system is sug- 

 gestive, and is as follows : — The keeper first picks up 

 all the/ earliest and best wild-laid eggs out of the coverts 

 to set under hens, and he is often tempted to prolong 

 this gathering until too late in the season, the wild birds 

 continuing to lay as long as their nests are robbed, and hatch- 

 ing late and inferior birds from what eggs are left to them. 

 Should the keeper not secure as many eggs as he requires in 

 this way, he buys from other sources at an average price 

 of about nine shillings per dozen, and sometimes more. 

 The price is tempting, and egg poaching is common. 

 Mr. Tegetmeir, in his excellent book on pheasants, last edition, 

 p. 102, states that owners of estates have been known to buy 

 eggs, from dealers, that had been stolen from their own coverts, 

 and that, " in the great majority of cases," purchased pheasant 

 eggs are stolen either from the rearers' own preserves or those 

 of their neighbours — "in some cases, the keepers themselves 

 purloining the eggs and selling them to the dealers, from whom 

 they are perhaps repurchased by the owner of the very estate 

 from whence they were abstracted." A leading article in the 

 " Field," of April 20th, 1 899, also deals with the subject of 

 " illegal traffic in game eggs," and states that : — 



" The chief sufferers from the nefarious trade are those 

 who preserve game extensively, and we do not hesitate to say 

 that they themselves are in a great measure to blame for their 

 own disasters in this respect. There are a legion of pseudo 

 egg-dealers who parade a small egg " farm " as a cloak to 

 their practices, and who are, as regards nine-tenths of their 



