36 MANAGEMENT OP PHEASANTS IN PEESBEVES. 



catchpools made where natural gravel abounds, namely, to make it into concrete and 

 case the bottom and sides with this only. It answers weU, and saves the labour and 

 expense of getting bricks from a distance. Every feeder knows that dry barley and 

 buckwheat in sheaf, and stacked in the vicinity of the preserves, and some pulled 

 out and shaken about occasionally, with a change of maize, will keep the pheasants 

 in good condition; but it does not occur to everyone that a good supply of water 

 near their feeding ground has a considerable influence on their habits. After feeding 

 heartily on dry food, they wUl stray for water if there be none handy, and will 

 stay away afterwards till hungry again, thus running the risk of being shot during 

 their wanderings. To keep pheasants in their own coverts, take means of making 

 them fond of them, even though there be no water near I have found Jerusalem 

 artichokes the best means of attraction. They are so fond of these tubers that they 

 will hunt them by sight or smell from any obscure corner. Give them also 

 potatoes (small and large), mangold wurtzel, carrots, white-hearted cabbage, and 

 savoys, all of which they will readily eat, and which not only prevent their straying 

 for water, but afford a change of food that is genial and natural to their taste and 

 well-doing, besides economising their dry corn food. Where the coverts abound 

 with acorns, beechmast, Spanish chesnuts, and groundnuts, the pheasant requires but 

 little feeding till the middle of December." 



The vignette represents the head of a starling with an extreme prolongation 

 of the lower jaw : it is in singular contrast to the abnormal head figured at the 

 end of the last chapter. 



