THE NEW FORESTRY. 27 



also the opinion of competent naturalists. Morris, in his 

 " British Birds," gives the -usual number laid, under natural 

 conditions, at from, six to ten, " sometimes " as many as four- 

 teen ; and Mr. Tegetmeir, p. 13, says the number, is "usually 

 about eight or nine." It is important to be accurate on this 

 head in calculating the number of hens to be left in the wood 

 where pheasants are bred wild. 



In conclusion, the subject of the artificial rearing of 

 pheasants may be summed up as follows 1 : — First, that accord 

 ing to the testimony of the most intelligent advocates of the 

 system, at least fifty per cent, of the eggs set never produce 

 birds for the gun, and that, under the ordinary run of 

 management, the losses very much greater than that. Second, 

 that, according to the testimony of those who have, the best 

 opportunities of knowing, pheasant eggs purchased from 

 outside sources are, " in the great majority of cases, stolen 

 from gentlemen's preserves by poachers and keepers." Third, 

 that eggs from penned-up birds are inferior, and a frequent 

 source of disease in the young birds. Fourth, that a very 

 large proportion of good eggs picked up in the coverts fail 

 when set under hens ; and, fifth, that the practice of picking up 

 the wild-laid eggs on estates is carried to excess, to the 

 destruction of the wild stock. 



Evidence of the above kind would be sufficient to condemn 

 any system in any other department of an estate, and if it 

 does not show the urgent need of reorganisation and a better 

 class of gamekeepers, we do not know what would. 



The foregoing remarks refer to rearing where the master 

 pays all expenses and takes all risks ; but it should be stated 

 here, for the benefit of those who may still favour the artificial 

 method, that the contract system is now coming into favour, 

 especially in Scotland, and where this plan is adopted, the 

 forester, with an assistant, could carry out the work as well as 

 a regular keeper. One of the first authorities on game preser- 

 vation writes, us that in the North, keepers offer to rear the 

 birds till the beginning of . August (or when they can be fed 

 on corn at from is. 7d. to 2s. per head), "finding the field, the 

 sitting hens and the food — the eggs to be picked up in the 

 coverts. One keeper to a nobleman writes that he has 

 carried out this plan on the same estate for seven years, at 

 2s. per head, and says that he did not make much by it, but 

 that, on the average, he did not lose anything. 



