REARING THE YOUNG BIRDS. 77 



If the young birds are put out into the covert, the hen and coop (as in the garden) 

 should be brought with them, and laid in a ride close to some very thick covert; 

 they should be fed there about four times a day, beginning early in the morning, 

 and diminishing as the birds grow strong. I feed them at this period on crushed 

 wheat and barley, boiled potatoes chopped fine, some boiled rice and curds, all 

 mixed together." 



A very vexed question with regard to rearing of the young birds is the 

 supply of water. Some very practical keepers give no water whatever; others give 

 a very little ; whilst a third set keep up an abundant supply, I am strongly of 

 opinion that in this, as in aU other respects, we cannot possibly do better than take 

 nature for our guide. When hatched out naturally, there is no doubt that the 

 birds obtain a plentiful supply of water. Even when there is no rain, the cloudless 

 skies are productive of heavy dews, and the young birds may be seen drinking the 

 glistening drops off the grass in the early morning. Some persons maintain that 

 the ova of the gapeworm are taken in with the water gathered from dewdrops on 

 the grass; others suggest that they occur in rain-water, but there is no foundation 

 for either of these theories. The gapeworms doubtless, like all other entozoa, 

 pass the first stage of their existence in some lower forms of animal life. Although 

 the precise animal in this case has not yet been discovered, yet it is probably 

 a small worm, moUusk, or grub inhabiting the ground, as the disease is strictly 

 local, which would not be the case if it were disseminated by a flying insect, by 

 dew or rain water, or by any animals inhabiting running water. Much evil is 

 produced by allowing the young pheasants to drink water contaminated with their 

 own excrement, which is always the case if the water vessels are so constructed 

 that the young can run into them; where such water is used, there can be no 

 doubt of its injurious quality, but I cannot imagine that fresh, clear water can be 

 otherwise than beneficial to the birds. 



A correspondent, who is. a most successful breeder of pheasants on a large 

 scale, and whose young stock are in splendid order, writes: — "I may give as my 

 opinion that it is perfectly necessary to their health to have fresh spring water. 

 Indeed, my man last year used to go to one particular spring to supply his birds, 

 as it was better water. In their wild state, immediately they are out of the nest, 

 the hen conducts them to the water, and in our wild Devonshire hills, where a 

 streamlet runs in every valley, you can always see the well-defined paths of the 

 broods to and from the water. I have just asked my man, and he tells me that so 

 well are their water-loving propensities known, that poachers in large breeding 

 places always net in dry weather, any springs within reach of the coops, and often 

 with success." Another authority says :— « I am strongly opposed to attempting 

 to rear pheasants without water, as against all nature; but my keeper adheres to 

 his own opinion that for at least some weeks they should have it only once a day. 



