84 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



aviary are soon eaten, and the birds, pining for fresli vege- 

 table diet, become irritable, feverisb, and take to plucking 

 each other's feathers. To prevent this, cabbages, turnip 

 leaves — still better, waste lettuces from the garden, when 

 going to seed — should be supplied as fast as they are eaten ; 

 the smaller the pen the greater the necessity for this supply. 

 The late Dr. Jerdon, the distinguished author of " The Birds 

 of India," when visiting the pheasantries in the Zoological 

 Gardens, said, in his emphatic manner, " You are not giving 

 these birds enough vegetable food. Lettuce ! Lettuce ! I 

 Lettuce ! ! ! " Prom my long experience in breeding galli- 

 naceous birds of different species, I can fully indorse his 

 recommendation. 



Should these cultivated vegetables be not readily obtained, 

 a good supply of freshly cut turves, with abundance of young 

 grass and plenty of clover, should be furnished daily. 



Instead of placing a cock and three to five hens in a pen, 

 as recommended, some persons advocate putting cut-winged 

 hens only in enclosures open at the top, so that they may be 

 visited by the wild males. Of necessity, this method can 

 only be followed in the immediate vicinity of coverts well 

 stocked with pheasants, and even under these conditions it is 

 not always successful, the eggs frequently not being fertilised. 

 " It is sometimes recommended to put pheasant hens into 

 small enclosures open at the top, so that the wild cocks 

 might get to them. I suppose generally that plan is 

 successful, but in my own case it has failed entirely. I had 

 plenty of eggs, but no chickens. My keeper gathered the 

 eggs regularly and carefully, and they were duly set under 

 common hens ; but not one single egg came off. I know the 

 wild cocks came close to the enclosure, but I never actually 

 found one inside. I followed Baily's instructions implicitly; 

 my own impression was, I must say, that the wild cocks had 

 not visited the hens." This appears an exceptional case, and 

 may probably be due to some local conditions. 



On the other hand, a second authority states : " On an 



