76 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 



that they will never aUow such cruelty again. More than a dozen birds confined, 

 perhaps, for ten hours in a dirty, ill- ventilated box, containing less than half a cubic 

 yard of air. No wonder that they look languid and drooping, and that it takes 

 them half the day to recover. I am far from insisting that the birds should at all 

 times be kept in these small yards. "When they are more than a week old I would 

 in fine weather raise one of the sides and let them roam at their will, of course 

 replacing the board at night. But in wet weather and in the mornings before the 

 dew is gone I would keep them up, and not run the risk of their getting draggled 

 and chilled with running on the wet grass." When shut in at night, which is often 

 necessary to avoid loss by weasels or rats, &c., they must be let out at daybreak in 

 the morning. 



Many keepers prefer rearing the young pheasants under hens that are tethered 

 by a cord to a peg driven into the ground, with an open shelter coop under which they 

 can retreat at night and during rain. If the hen is fastened by a string her leg is 

 very frequently injured. She shoiild be secured by a proper jesse such as is used by 

 falconers. This is made by cutting a piece of thin flexible leather of the following 

 shape : It is used by placing the broad part, that between A and B, round the leg of 

 the hen, bringing the slit A over B, and then passing the end through both 

 slits, when a fastening is formed around the leg that can neither be loosened nor 



tightened by pulling. In passing the end C through the two slits care must be 

 taken that it goes through A first, for if it is pulled through from behind, a 

 slip loop is formed, which wiH pinch the leg of the hen. The slit at C is for the 

 purpose of attaching the cord by which the hen is tethered ; the jesse is represented 

 half the size required for a hen. 



In situations where such a convenience is available, there is no more 

 advantageous situation for newly hatched pheasants than a garden surrounded with 

 high waUs. A very practical correspondent, writing from Kildare, says : — " There 

 can be no better place to put young birds when newly reared than a 

 large walled-in vegetable garden. I always place mine, hencoop and all, near 

 a plot of cabbages, gooseberries, or raspberries, where they have good covert 

 and feeding, and, above all, are protected from any injury at night during the 

 period of their jugging on the ground, which they do for some time before they 

 fly up to roost. By feeding them at the coops four or five times a day, they will 

 stay in the garden until fully feathered, and able to fly over the wall to the 

 adjacent coverts. I have had hen pheasants that nested in the garden and hatched 

 under gooseberry-bushes, coming to my whistle to feed regularly every morning. 



