12 W. COOKS TURKEY, GOOSE, AND PHEASANT BOOK. 



Pheasants will go a long way in search of food. They 

 are out first thing in the morning, as soon as it is day- 

 light, searching for worms, slugs, grubs, &c. Then 

 again, pheasants eat a great deal of green stuff. In the 

 winter time they will frequently visit turnip fields. They 

 will do this in the summer, but more especially in the 

 winter, they are particularly fond of turnip tops and 

 chickweed. People often wonder how pheasants get on 

 in the very hard winter weather, when there is no possi- 

 bility of them getting worms and grubs. 



I have watched them very carefully and find they turn 

 the leaves over in the wood, especially with their beak. 

 There is always a certain amount of insect life in a wood, 

 under the dead foliage, but small acorns are their principal 

 food in the severe weather. 



They also eat the large acorns, but those they 

 usually peck to pieces. The small ones they swallow 

 whole. 



Then again, when the weather is very sharp the keepers 

 often feed them on grain. Of course, there are pheasants 

 kept at different parts of the country, where there is no 

 keeper, but in such cases the pheasants are nothing like 

 so thick upon the ground, perhaps in such an instance 

 as the latter there would not be more than one or two 

 hen pheasants in a large wood for the breeding season, 

 and that only means two or three broods of young ones. As 

 pheasants are naturally wild birds, insect life is their 

 principal food, and it is rather unnatural for them to be 

 kept in confinement and fed upon grain. What I want 

 more particularly to refer to is the use of Indian corn. 



