Pheasants Birds 
meanwhile he hides his head coyly behind the right 
one, sometimes peeping out between the flight- 
feathers to see if he is making an impression. This 
pheasant barks like a dog. 
HOUSE 
Although pheasants when grown should be given 
freedom in the fields, it is necessary to house and 
care for them during the breeding season. 
The house should be put on well-drained ground, 
and on a gentle slope facing south but where it will 
be comparatively cool in mid-summer. Sandy loam 
is the best soil, and clay the poorest for the pheasant 
pen. Each pen should cover at least one hundred 
feet square, and it should be from six to eight feet 
high, and enclosed above with wire. If only one 
cock and four or five hens are kept, the pen need not 
be larger than thirty feet square. A small open shed 
should be placed at the upper side of the pen for a 
shelter in wet or stormy weather. The floor of this 
shed should be natural soil, so as to furnish dust 
baths for the birds; for it is absolutely necessary 
for their: health that they be able to dust them- 
selves. Mortar, cinders and plenty of grit should 
be kept in the shed. Wire netting should be set 
down into the ground for about two feet to shut out 
burrowing animals that prey upon the birds. There 
should be perches in the shed and also in the open 
pen. Both sheds and pens should be kept very 
clean. The earth of each pen should be spaded 
and limed every two or three years, and the pen 
may be sowed with clover and grass to provide the 
green food. 
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