THE PHEASANTS 57 



mixed with the food, the quantity of grain being increased 

 gradually until the birds can be fed entirely with the 

 grain. Mr. Evans says, further, that it is good policy 

 to work the poults off the soft food as soon as possible. 

 The breeder at the outset will get full instructions 

 from the dealer who owns the pheasantry, and following 

 these he should have no trouble in stocking his farm 

 or preserve. 



In setting out the young birds the foster-mother and 

 coop should be moved to the place selected and the 

 young fed there daily, until they become accustomed 

 to the place. This will prevent their wandering away. 

 It is well to know that pheasants do not inhabit large 

 forests or open plains. They insist upon cover, but 

 feed in the fields. In this they much resemble our 

 partridge. Bob-white, and the pheasants as a rule will 

 do well on the same ground. In the early morning 

 and again toward evening the pheasants leave the 

 cover to scratch and feed in the fields. When alarmed, 

 like the partridges, they fly to the cover, but some- 

 times trust to their legs and travel at a gait to exas- 

 perate a setter trying to road and point them. 



A successful breeder, De Guise, writing for Forest 

 and Stream, says : " They will at once make their home 

 in and never leave any wooded hollow, where cedars 

 and other evergreen trees abound, through whose 

 depths runs a never-failing stream, and which lies amid 

 fields of grass and grain. Such is an ideal harborage 

 for them, where their every want will be supplied. 

 . . . . In trying to set up a stock of pheasants no 

 efforts will be fully repaid, no success will be perfect, 

 unless a determined and continued onslaught is made 



