130 Rearing the Young Birds. 



■wurms, and natural food which is so much more beneficial 

 to them than any artificial substitute that can be given. The 

 young pheasants, even when two or three days old, will be 

 observed scratching for themselves, and the progress that 

 they make when reared under these conditions is out of all 

 proportion to that made when the hen is kept cooped up and 

 the birds are fed on the hard, soiled, dirty ground. The 

 pegs and coops can be shifted daily, so that the young birds 

 are always on fresh ground. 



A very practical correspondent, writing from Kildare, 

 says : " There can be no better place to put young birds 

 when newly reared than a large walled-in vegetable garden. 

 I always place mine, hencoop and all, near a plot of cabbages, 

 gooseberries, or raspberries, where they have good covert and 

 feeding, and, above all, are protected from any injury at 

 night during the period of their jugging on the ground, 

 which they do for some time before thej- fly up to roost. 

 By feeding them at the coops four or five times a day, they 

 will stay in the garden until fully feathered, and able to fly 

 over the wall to the adjacent coverts. I have had hen 

 pheasants that nested in the garden and hatched under goose- 

 berry^ bushes, coming to my whistle to feed regularly every 

 morning. If the young birds are put out into the covert, 

 the hen and coop (as in the garden) should be brought with 

 them, and laid in a ride close to some very thick covert ; they 

 should be fed there about four times a day, beginning early 

 in the morning, and diminishing as the birds grow strong. 

 I feed them at this period on crushed wheat and barley, 

 boiled potatoes chopped fine, some boiled rice and curds, all 

 mixed together." 



A very vexed question with regard to rearing of the young 

 birds is the supply of water. Some very practical keepers 

 give no water whatever ; others give a very little ; whilst a 

 third set keep up an abundant supply. 



One correspondent says : " I know a keeper who rears a 

 great number of pheasants each year, and he does not give 



