116 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE AVIARY. 



•with them particularly well. ■ It was mixed into the form of soft dough with a 

 little water, which was all that was required. They were also constantly supplied 

 with green food, such as lettuce, when they were in the aviary. But the best way 

 is to have a coop, railed in front, into which they are put with the hen twenty-four 

 hours after they are hatched. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as 

 near to the windows of the house as possible, so that they may always be within 

 observation; a small verdure garden is the best possible locality, as the young have 

 plenty of range, with shelter under the bushes from both sun and rain. In the 

 instance which I have already alluded to, the hen was allowed to range about six 

 feet from the coop, by means of a small cord attached to a leather strap round one 

 of her legs, and the other end tied to the coop; the young pheasants never 

 wandered far from the hen, and always came into the coop to remain with her at 

 night. In front of each coop a small frame was put down, boxed round on three 

 sides, without a bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was put close to the coop, 

 aiid the young birds could run through the rails of the coop into the inclosed space, 

 and were safe from the night attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was always kept 

 before the coops for the first few days after the young were hatched, and untU 

 they became acquainted with the call of the hen. When I first began to rear 

 young pheasants, I could not at all account for their seemingly foolish manner for 

 the first two or three days after being hatched; they would run gaping about 

 without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to them to come for food. The 

 reason of this I afterwards believed to have been owing to their ignorance of the 

 language of their foster-mother, which it took some time for them to understand ; 

 during this process it is necessary to keep them confined within the frame before 

 their coops, as, were they to wander a few yards from the hen, they would not heed, 

 her call, and would inevitably perish. When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, 

 if they are to be kept in the aviary, to pinion them, which is done by cutting off 

 rather more than the first joint of the wing, having previously, by means of ■ a 

 needle and thread inserted close to the small wing-bone, and brought round the 

 large one, just within the skin, taking up the main blood-vessels; the piece of the 

 wing is then chopped off on a block. There is no loss of blood, and I never could 

 observe that the birds seemed to suffer in the slightest degree afterwards, although 

 the operation I daresay was painful enough. My reason for taking off rather more 

 than the first joint of the wing was because I found that if only the first joint was 

 taken off, the birds were always able, when grown up, to get out of the aviary, 

 which was about 12ft. high; and I found it thus reqmsite to take off so much as 

 to render them incapable of any attempt at flying, but I left enough remaining to 

 enable them to reach their roosting-place at night. I furnished them with a kind 

 of ladder by nailing cross pieces of wood on a long piece about Sin. wide, and 

 which they very soon learned to walk up and down with facility. One aviary in 



