PHEASANTS 91 



sorts are on the market. With this may be chopped boiled 

 egg, fine crissel or meat meal and finely minced green fodd, 

 such as chickweed, lettuce, watercress or chives. If none of 

 these is available, fine alfalfa meal may be substituted. The 

 whole mass should be dampened with scalding water until it 

 will just hold together when squeezed in the hand. Insect 

 food is very necessary for the more delicate species, and 

 is supplied in the form of ants' cocoons, commonly known as 

 " eggs," and maggots which have been cleaned in dry meal or 

 sand for at least forty-eight hours. Recently there has been 

 an outcry against the use of maggots for young pheasants, 

 chiefly on the grounds that their production is offensive and 

 that they are not essential to the growth of the chicks. This 

 is no doubt true for pheasants on range, which are able to 

 secure all the insect food they require But birds reared 

 in confinement have no such opportunities and insect food 

 of some sort must be provided. If maggots are reared in 

 clean meat, carefully cleaned in bran for forty-eight hours, 

 and scalded before being fed, there is no doubt that their 

 moderate use is of the greatest assistance in rearing the 

 ybung birds. On the other hand, maggots that have not been 

 properly cleaned are dangerous, and may very probably 

 prove fatal to the chicks which eat them. 



When the chicks are about six weeks old, a few small 

 grains, such as millet and canary seed, may be added gradu- 

 ally to their diet and slowly increased until the young birds, 

 fully fledged, are fed practically as are the adults. The 

 chicks should be fed, at first, at intervals of from two to 

 three hours, all food uneaten being removed as soon as the 

 birds stop feeding. The periods are lengthened slowly until 

 grain fed twice daily is found quite sufficient. 



Shade is very essential to the young birds and is best pro- 

 vided in the form of natural shrubbery. If this is not avail- 

 able, small A-shaped shelters may be made oi boards pi; 



