72 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 



cleverer than man, hut; unfortunately, tlie latter has not always the sense ta 

 perceive the fact. The nearer we can imitate her in our arrangements, the more 

 successful we shall be. 



With regard to the first food of the young chicks, there is nothing superior 

 to a supply of fresh ants' eggs (as they are generally termed, although, strictly 

 speaking, they are the pupse, and not the eggs of the insects). Eor grain, I am 

 anxious to recommend, as the first food, a good proportion of canary seed in 

 preference to grits and meal. Grain when once crushed or bruisfed has its vitality 

 destroyed, and it then tmdergoes changes when exposed to the air : the difference 

 between sweet, new oatmeal and the pungent, biting, rancid meal that is generally 

 found in the fusty drawers of the corn-chandler, is known to all persons accustomed 

 to use oatmeal as food. This change, however, does not occur in the entire grain 

 as long as its validity exists, and hence the whole canary seed, which is readily 

 devoured by the young poults, is almost certain to be fresh and sweet. Moreover, 

 the husk contains a larger proportion of phosphate of lime, or bone-making material, 

 than the centre of the grain, and is, therefore, better adapted to supply the wants 

 of the growing birds. 



To afford a supply of artificially-prepared animal food, most of the books 

 recommend hard boUed eggs, grated or chopped small, to be mixed with bread 

 crumbs, meal, vegetables, &c. Nothing, however, can be less attractive to the 

 young birds than the food they are frequently condemned to exist upon. I have 

 often seen pieces of the chopped white of hard boiled egg, dried by the sun into 

 horny angular particles, refused by the young birds, although on these, with bread 

 crumbs also dried to brittle fragments in the sun, many persons attempt to rear 

 yoimg pheasants — and faU. The best substitute for ants' eggs is custard, made by 

 beating an egg with a tablespoonful of milk, and " setting " the whole by a gentle 

 heat, either in the oven or by the side of the fire. The clear eggs that have been 

 sat on for a week answer perfectly well. No animal food can surpass this mixture. 

 The egg supplies albumen, oil, phosphorus, sulphur, &c. ; whilst the nulk affords 

 caseine, sugar of milk, and the requisite phosphate of lime and other mineral 

 ingredients; moreover, these are aU prepared and mixed in Nature's laboratory for 

 the express purpose of supporting the life and growth of young animals, and 

 combined as custard form a most soft, sapid, attractive food, that is eagerly 

 devoured by the poults. From my own long experience in rearing many species 

 of gallinaceous birds, I am confident that a very much larger proportion can be 

 reared if custard forms a considerable proportion of their food for the first few 

 weeks, than on any other dietary whatever. 



Many rearers of pheasants are strongly in favour of using curd, made from 

 fresh, sweet mUk put on the fire, and when warm turned or curdled with alum, 

 and then put into a coarse cloth, which is to be twisted or pressed until the 



