194 SHOOTINGATHE \PHEASANT 



frequent change of blood ; you should, therefore, if 

 you have a sufficient stock left not to require to buy 

 eggs, exchange some with any of your friends living 

 some distance off. Also mix the eggs of the hens in 

 your pheasantry with those gathered from wild nests, 

 never losing sight of the fact that change and mixture 

 of blood is the greatest factor of all in keeping from 

 year to year a healthy and numerous flock of birds. 



The gathering of eggs from wild nests demands 

 considerable skill, care, and tact. It is a great mis- 

 take on most estates to gather up every egg. When 

 laid in favourable and secure places, a certain pro- 

 portion only should be Hfted ; and, again, let not the 

 suicidal and greedy policy of skimming everything 

 from near the boundary be followed, unless it be close 

 to a town or village, the resort of poachers and tramps, 

 or alongside of a quantity of small freeholds. This 

 department of hand-rearing is most fully and ably dealt 

 with in the Badminton Library (' Field and Covert ' 

 volume). But it should be added that some of the 

 best Norfolk keepers, on estates where expense is not 

 spared, are of opinion that no eggs should be left in wild 

 nests ; that they can produce a better proportion to 

 the gun from the eggs when taken up and dealt with in 

 the pheasantry, and that wild-bred birds are not worth 

 consideration where you can afford to rear on a large 



