FEEDING IN OOVEETS. 33 



three or four in the afternoon, he goes again and deposits in the same way a mixture 

 of barley and white peas, concealing the corn as before. In this way I scarcely 

 ever lose a grain of corn from intrusion by ' smaU depredators.' Woodpigeons 

 and jays wiU sometimes intrude; but, with attention in concealing the corn, and 

 by adopting punctuality in feeding, you may prevent any waste worth notice. 

 Besides, by what I call ' feeling the pulse ' of your coverts, by observing how 

 your birds come up to their food, you easUy discover when anything is going wrongj 

 as the least disturbance will make pheasants shy, and will be enough to put your 

 keeper on the alert to discover the cause," 



When fed by hand in this manner, a great variety of food may be used. 

 Maize is certainly one of the best; weight for weight it is usually much cheaper 

 than barley, is better relished by the pheasants, is far more fattening, and it 

 possesses the great recommendation of not being so readily devoured by the 

 sparrows, especially if the large coarse and cheaper varieties are purchased. A 

 correspondent, who has kept pheasants for many years, and taken much trouble 

 to ascertain their preference for difEerent kinds of food, states, as the result of 

 his experience, that "they prefer maize or Indian com to any other food 

 that can be given to them. I have frequently given the pheasants that come 

 regularly to my window to be fed equal parts of Indian com, peas, small horse- 

 beans, wheat, barley, and oats, and they invariably take them in the order in which I 

 have written them, I have also frequently done the same with those I keep shut 

 up for laying, and always with the same results. Pheasants that I have had from 

 elsewhere to put with them in confinement, and that have never seen maize, take 

 to it in a couple of days, and then, like the others, wiQ eat nothing else so lonff 

 as they can get it; and if I try them .with the mixture above named I find aU 

 the other grain neglected. The young pheasants at the coops begin to eat it 

 before they are as large as partridges, and then entirely neglect the barley, &c. I 

 never see pheasants that are kept up in better condition than my own, and they 

 have nothing but Indian com, a few turnip leaves, and clods of turf to pull to 

 pieces. Another great advantage of maize is that small birds cannot steal it, with 

 the exception of the tomtit, and though almost the smallest he holds the corn 

 with one foot and hammers away like a miniature woodpecker, commencing at the 

 part of the grain that is attached to the stalk, finding that the only road in. It 

 is but a very small part of each com that he is able to eat, but it seems to 

 possess great attraction for him. There are six or eight of these little birds live 

 constantly near my house at this season; and though chaffinches, blackbirds, and 

 thrushes all try their best at the maize, they soon give it up hopelessly. Rooks 

 take it greedily, and were it not for an occasional baU from the air gvm they 

 would rob the pheasants of every grain." 



Feeding troughs, which open with the weight of the pheasant when standing^ 



