With Netting or Open ? 79 



stout flexible binding wire, which should also be used to 

 secure them together at top and bottom. The posts should 

 be inside the pen, as better calculated to resist any pressure 

 from without. 



The hurdles should rest on the ground without any opening 

 below, and if they are sunk three or four inches below the 

 surface the pens will be more secure against dogs and foxes 

 or any animals likely to scratch their way under. The size 

 of these pens should be as large as convenient ; for a cock 

 and three to five hens — the utmost number that should be 

 placed together — as many hurdles should be employed as 

 will form a pen twenty-five to thirty -five feet square, the 

 smaller containing 625 square or superficial feet of surface ; 

 the larger, which will require less than half as many more 

 hurdles, containing nearly double the interior space, namely, 

 1225 square feet. If the birds are full winged, these enclosures 

 must be netted over the top ; for this purpose old tanned 

 herring netting, which can be bought very cheaply, will be 

 found much better than wire-work, as the pheasants are 

 apt, when frightened, to fly up against the top of the enclosure, 

 and if it be of wire, to break their necks or seriously injure 

 themselves. Should netting be employed, several upright 

 poles, with cross pieces at the top, are required to be placed 

 at equal distances to support the netting, and prevent it 

 hanging down into the interior of the pen. A much better 

 plan is to leave the pen quite open at the top, and to clip 

 one of the wings of each bird by stripping with a pair of 

 scissors the quills of twelve or fourteen of the flight feathers. 

 When the birds cannot fly they become much tamer, are 

 more productive, and are not so apt to injure themselves by 

 dashing about wildly, especially if there be, as is desirable, 

 brushwood cover or faggots in the pen, under which they 

 can run and conceal themselves. Some persons are in the 

 habit of pinioning the birds by cutting off the last joint of 

 the wing, thus removing permanently the ten primary quills, 

 but the plan is not to be recommended, as the pinioned birds 



