FEEDING YOUNG PHEASANTS. Ill 



growing birds. The first food preferred by young partridges 

 is the seed of the crested dog's tail grass {Oynosurus cristatus), 

 with which their crops will often be found quite full, and 

 there is no doubt it would be an equally advantageous food 

 for young pheasants, but is not as readily obtained as canary 

 seed. 



To aiford a supply of artificially prepared animal food, 

 most of the boobs recommend hard boiled eggs, grated or 

 chopped small, to be mixed with bread crumbs, meal, 

 vegetables, &c. Nothing, however, can be less attractive to 

 the young birds than the food they are frequently condemned 

 to exist upon. I have often seen pieces of the chopped white 

 of hard boiled egg, dried by the sun into horny angular 

 particles, refused by the young birds, although on these, with 

 bread crumbs also dried to brittle fragments in the sun, many 

 persons attempt to rear young pheasants — and fail. The best 

 substitute for ants' eggs is custard, made by beating an egg 

 with a tablespoonful of milk, and " setting " the whole by a 

 gentle heat, either in the oven or by the side of the fire. The 

 clear eggs that have been sat on for a week answer perfectly 

 well. No artificially prepared animal food can surpass this 

 mixture. The egg supplies albumen, oil, phosphorus, sulphur, 

 &c. ; whilst the milk affords caseine, sugar of milk, and the 

 requisite phosphate of lime and other mineral ingredients ; 

 moreover, these are all piepared and mixed in Nature's 

 laboratory for the express purpose of supporting the life and 

 growth of young animals, and combined as custard form a 

 most soft, sapid, attractive food, that is eagerly devoured 

 by the poults. From my own long experience in rearing 

 many species of gallinaceous birds, I am confident that a very 

 much la;rger proportion can be reared if custard forms a con- 

 siderable proportion of their food for the first few weeks, 

 than on any other dietary whatever. 



Many rearers of pheasants are strongly in favour of 

 using curd, made from fresh, sweet milk put on tiie fire, and 

 when warm turned or curdled with alum, and then put into a 



