20 \V. cook's TURKEY, GOOSE, AND PHEASANT BOOK. 



These small lice are the same colour as the skin of the 

 pheasant, so it is only those ^'ho are experienced and 

 know where to look for them are able to find them, as 

 they run very fast. 



When setting pheasant eggs it is always best to make 

 the nest with soil, then a thin coat of lime and some 

 fine hay on the top of that. The pheasants usually 

 hatch out much better if the nests are made with damp 

 soil. 



When these birds make their own nests it is in almost 

 every case on the ' ground. The warmth from the 

 pheasant's body draws the moisture from the ground, 

 which softens the inner membrane of the egg. If 

 there is not a good thickness of soil when the hen is 

 sitting upon the pheasant eggs, it is well to sprinkle a 

 little water on the eggs the last four days, so that the 

 water runs to the bottom of the nest, then the warmth 

 from the hen's body draws the moisture round the eggs, 

 making it warm by the heat which comes from her body. 

 As a rule, pheasant eggs are very fertile and hatch 

 out better than hens' eggs. When they are once chipped 

 they soon hatch out. 



Pheasants' eggs take twent)-four days to hatch, 

 occasionally they will come out on the 23rd day, and in 

 a few cases I have known them go twenty-six days, but 

 that is unusual. 



It is often a mystery to people when pheasants lay 

 from fifteen to nineteen eggs in a nest, as a rule they 

 hatch out well, because it is always thought the eggs 

 require turning. That is quite right, and both pheasants 



