226 The Golden Pheasant. 



hung up about once a week. In addition to these larvae, the 

 young were supphed with potatoes, alum curd, groats, and 

 Indian corn meal ; this last I found they were very fond of ^ 

 and it seemed to agree with them particularly well. It was 

 mixed into the form of soft dough with a httle water, which 

 was all that was required. They were also constantly supplied 

 with green food, such as lettuce, when they were in the aviary. 

 But the best way is to have a coop, railed in front, into which 

 they are put with the hen twenty-four hours after they are 

 hatched. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as 

 near to the windows of the house as possible, so that they 

 may always be within observation ; a small verdure garden 

 is the best possible locality, as the young have plenty of range, 

 with shelter under the bushes from both sun and rain. In 

 the instance which I have already alluded to, the hen was 

 allowed to range about six feet from the coop, by means of 

 a small cord attached to a leather strap round one of her legs, 

 and the other end tied to the coop ; the young pheasants never 

 wandered far from the hen, and always came into the coop 

 to remain with her at night. In front of each coop a small 

 frame was put down, boxed round on three sides, without a 

 bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was put close to the 

 coop, and the young birds could run through the rails of the 

 coop into the enclosed space, and were safe from the night 

 attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was always kept before 

 the coops for the first few days after the young were hatched, 

 and until they became acquainted with the call of the hen. 

 When I first began to rear young pheasants I could not at all 

 account for their seemingly foolish manner for the first two 

 or three days after being hatched ; they would run gaping 

 about without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to them 

 to come for food. The reason of this I afterwards believed to 

 have been owing to their ignorance of the language of their 

 foster-mother, which it took some time for them to under- 

 stand ; during this process it is necessary to keep them eon- 

 fined within the frame before their coops, as, were they to 



