THE NEW FORESTRY. 23 



These are some of the serious objections to |the , system 

 we propose to abolish, but not the worst. The question 

 affecting owners of preserves most is the proportion 

 which the number of birds brought to , the - gun bears to 

 the number of eggs collected ok bought, set and hatcned, 

 and the expense involved in their rearing. It is difficult 

 to get at this problem from keepers. One gentleman in 

 Norfolk devised a book that was to record everything from 

 the setting of the eggs till the birds were finally distributed in 

 the coverts ; but he reckoned without the keeper, and it was a 

 failure. By diligent enquiry from a number of estates where 

 the artificial rearing is relied upon, we ascertained correctly 

 the number of eggs put down and the number of birds shot 

 over a series of years, from the same coverts, and we are 

 within the mark when we state that the average proportion of 

 birds brought to the gun amounted to from two hundred-and- 

 fifty to three hundred for every thousand eggs, and no 

 deduction was made for wild birds which are included in the 

 above figures. It will be admitted, we hope, that the number 

 of birds brought to the gun ought to bear some reasonable 

 proportion to the eggs set, bought, or picked up. In not a few ' 

 instances we have heard of even a less proportion than the 

 above being got. To be sure, however, we wrote to a well- 

 known expert on this subject, a shooting estate agent, who is 

 also a thoroughly practical gamekeeper and sportsman, and an 

 advocate of artificial rearing, who is much consulted on the 

 .subject. He writes, June 29th, 1898: — "Pheasant rearing is 

 now skilfully reduced to a science in Scotland. I always think 

 that a thousand birds brought up to the gun, out of two 

 thousand eggs, a success." Now this is a loss of fifty per cent, 

 by the most scientific and skilful process, and bears out our own 

 calculations under ordinary conditions. We referred our 

 correspondent to an estate where no artificial rearing was , 



practised, and he admitted that " D " was a celebrated . 



place for pheasants, even without rearing," but added, " to me, 

 whose business it is to study bags of large shoots, it is sur- 

 prising how, generally speaking, they go down." It will be 

 shown further on why the stock " goes down." Now, where 

 is this discrepancy between the eggs and the birds accounted 

 for? Undoubtedly, almost entirely, between the setting of 

 the eggs under the hens and the turning of the birds into the 

 coverts, or, in other words, during the time the birds are under 

 the purely artificial care of the keeper. During this period 

 the loss between eggs that never hatch and birds that die is. 



