TETHERING HENS. 117 



wake, and not be kept waiting, according to the usual plan, 

 for two or three hours during the long summer mornings 

 before they are let out. My birds are never shut in the coop 

 at night, the wire netting being sufficient protection against 

 vermin and cats. I do not know whether any of your readers 

 have ever accompanied tbeir keeper on a hot summer 

 morning when he is letting the young birds out of the coops. 

 If not, let them do so, and but put their noses within a foot 

 of the coop, and I will venture to say that they will never 

 allow such cruelty again. More than a dozen birds confined, 

 perhaps, for ten hours in a dirty, ill-ventilated box, con- 

 taining less than half a cubic yard of air. No wonder that 

 they look languid and drooping, and that it takes them half 

 the day to recover. I am far from insisting that the birds 

 should at all times be kept in these small yards. When they 

 are more than a week old I would, in fine weather, raise one 

 of the sides and let them roam at their will, of course, re- 

 placing the board at night. But in wet weather and in the 

 mornings before the dew is gone, I would keep them up, and 

 not run the risk of their getting draggled and chilled with 

 running on the wet grass." When shut in at night, which is 

 often necessary to avoid loss by weasels or rats, &c., they 

 should be let out at daybreak in the morning. 



Many keepers prefer rearing the young pheasants under 

 hens that are tethered by a cord to a peg driven into the 

 ground, with an open shelter coop into which they can 

 retreat, and if necessary be shut in, at night and during rain, 

 The following directions for tethering hens with young 

 pheasants or chickens are taken from my work on "Table 

 and Market Poultry." 



" The hen should be fastened by a piece of string to a 

 peg driven into the ground, and an open, sheltered coop 

 should be placed near her, under which she can retreat at 

 night and during rain. The coOp should not be put so close 

 to the peg to which the hen is attached that she can walk 

 round it, but near the limit of her cord, so that she can pass 



