WILD-BRED AND HAND-REARED 193 



the first time over ; yet the majority of owners who 

 have left one hundred hens would think they had 

 done well if they killed 300 or 400 pheasants the 

 following year. 1 have knocked off a very liberal dis- 

 count for accident and the uncertainties of rearing. 

 For a more liberal estimate per hen you may refer to 

 Mr. Tegetmeier's work, p. 57, wherein he quotes an 

 authority who gathered 1,500 eggs from forty hens 

 one year, and 1,600 from forty-one hens the following 

 year. 



The owner of a large game preserve is usually but 

 little on the spot between April and July, when the 

 serious business of laying, hatching, and rearing is 

 taking place, and it is absolutely essential that, having 

 secured a head keeper whom he can trust, he should 

 rely upon him to look after his underlings, and judge 

 the whole matter fairly by results. One of the best 

 known game preservers in the country always engages 

 his keepers on the understanding that if a cer- 

 tain number of pheasants are not forthcoming on 

 his beat they have to leave without further argument. 

 In this instance the owner, who has had large ex- 

 perience, is a very competent judge of what each beat 

 should produce, and his keepers know there is no 

 trifling with him or the system. 



All the best authorities have a great belief in 



o 



