Nature as Guide. 13 3 



breeding places always net in dry weather any springs within 

 reach of the coops, and often with success." Another authority 

 says : " I am strongly opposed to attempting to rear pheasants 

 without water, as against all nature ; but my keeper adheres 

 to his own opinion that for at least some weeks they should 

 have it only once a day, bringing forward cases of broods 

 hatched in dry fields where no water flows. My idea is that 

 in a wild state they can wander in search of dew, and also 

 feed upon more moist and natural food than the egg, meat, 

 and herbs that are chopped for them when reared under hens. 

 I am aware that it is quite a common practice amongst keepers 

 to deprive the httle birds of water, and I cannot but feel it 

 to be a cruel as well as a mistaken one. I believe that dry 

 food wants water to aid digestion ; and when birds are kept 

 all day in small wired enclosures in the full blaze of the sun, 

 it seems to me that they must require water to keep them 

 healthy ; and I also think that if they have a little always 

 in the pen they will drink less than when only given to them 

 once a day. I saw a brood last week that had onlj^ had 

 water once, quite early in the morning ; they were being fed 

 again in the evening, but would eat nothing. I then ordered 

 some water to see what thej^ would do, and the little birds 

 and the old hen went to it at once, and seemed as if they could 

 never have enough." And a third, writing to me on the same 

 object, states : " I have been a rearer of pheasants for nearly 

 thirty years. I give mine an unlimited supplj- of water at 

 all stages of their growth, and I consider that it would be 

 great cruelty to withhold it from them. I do not consider 

 broods brought up by their mothers in dry fields where no 

 water is to be found at all to the point. How can our poor 

 artificial foods compare with the thousand and one varieties 

 they find in nature, full both of nourishment and moisture, 

 with which it is impossible for us to supply them in confine- 

 ment ? I quite endorse your suggestion as regards the great 

 value of lettuce for pheasants. I have fed them for some 

 years with it, and they are very fond of it." 



