78 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN CONFINEMENT. 



bringing forward cases of broods batobed in dry fields wbere no water flows. My 

 idea is tbat in a wild state they can wander in searcb of dew, and also feed upon 

 more moist and natural food tban tbe egg, meat, and herbs that are chopped for 

 them when reared under bens, I am aware tbat it is quite a common practice 

 amongst keepers to deprive tbe little birds of water, and I cannot but feel it to be 

 a cruel as well as a mistaken one. I beHeve that dry food wants water to aid 

 digestion ; and when birds are kept all day in small wired enclosures in the full 

 blaze of the sun, it seems to me that they must require water to keep them healthy ; 

 and I also think that if they have a little always in the pen, they will drink less 

 than when only given to them once a day. I saw a brood last week that had 

 only had water once, quite early in the morning; they were being fed again in 

 the evening, but would eat nothing. I then ordered some water to see what they 

 would do, and the little birds and the old hen went to it at once, and seemed as if 

 they could never have enough." And a third, writing to me on the same subject, 

 states: — "I have been a rearer of pheasants for nearly thirty years. I give mine an 

 unlimited supply of water at all stages of their growth, and I consider that it would 

 be great cruelty to withhold it from them. I do not consider broods brought up by 

 their mothers in dry fields where no water is to be found at all to the point- How 

 can our poor artificial food compare with the thousand and one varieties they find 

 in nature, full both of nourishment and moisture, with which it is impossible for us^ 

 to supply them in confinement. I quite endorse your suggestion as regards the 

 great value of lettuce for pheasants. I have fed them for some years with it, and 

 they are very fond of it," 



On the other hand many successful keepers do not give water, or only in very 

 small quantity. One correspondent says : — " I know a keeper who rears a great 

 number of pheasants each year, and he does not give them water tiU they are seven 

 or eight weeks old, at which age they begin to eat barley and corn, and require water 

 to assist digestion. He says that pheasants in their wild state take the dew in the 

 mornings, and only in very dry weather do the old hens take their broods to water. 

 In very dry weather, when there is little or no dew, he sprinkles water twice a 

 day on the grass, but never puts any down for them until the time before stated 

 and when he waters the hens he does not allow the pheasants to drink. He says 

 that water put down for them brings on diarrhoea. By allowing the grass to grow 

 here and there, it protects the birds from the sun, and the grass receives and holds 

 the dew." The writer of the following letter holds the. balance very fairly between 

 the opposing views : — " The giving of water to young pheasants is a point on which 

 rearers differ. Some consider it necessary, others that none should be given 

 until the chicks are a month old, while others assert that any quantity may be 

 given, provided it has first been boiled. Those who advocate the latter plan 

 fancy that the gapeworms, which are supposed to exist in bad .water, are 



