20 



Points on Care and Breeding of Pheasants, etc. 



An excellent pasture is a clover patch or strawberry bed. Grass and greens are as much 

 the staff of pheasants as bread is to man. Young pheasants will thrive on grass and greens 

 exclusively. However, I consider clover the best pasture for them. They are as easy to 

 raise as chickens and can be reared in any kind of climate. 1 raise on an average 80 per 

 cent every year. When four weeks old I feed grain of every description, and when seven weeks 

 old I cage them and give them plenty of perches and lots of brush and old trees to roost on 

 in the run, which is an important point to observe, because young pheasants cannot stand 

 roosting on bare and damp grounds. After October a shed should be provided for pheasants 

 to roost under. Pheasants are small feeders, they grow fast and have their full size and 

 plumage when five months old. I do not approve of giving sick pheasants or chickens very 

 much water, fever appears in most instances with all sickness and keeps the bird drinking 

 constantly, which is very detrimental for their condition. To get pheasants well acclimated 

 and rightly quartered, they should be purchased in the fall of the year. 



On many estates in England, pheasants are reared by mating wild cocks to tame hens. 

 The pheasantry is constructed with an open top, and the wild cock birds visit them regularly. 

 They claim that from these birds, the chicks are invariably stronger and hardier and conse- 

 quently easier reared than those bred in the ordinary way. 



Another plan is to leave the pen quite open at the top and clip one of the wings of each 

 bird, cutting off about fourteen of the flight feathers, close but not into the quills. When the 

 birds cannot fly, they become much tamer, are more productive and not so apt to injure 

 themselves by dashing wildly about. I do not approve of pinioning the birds, as it makes 

 them incapable of taking care of themselves when turned out into the open and certain to 

 fall a prey to ground vermin. 



For bringing pheasants home, that have strayed away, I know of nothing equal to 

 boiled potatoes. Boil them with the skins, whole, and cut out of each skin a piece the size 

 of a quarter of a dollar, showing the meat, and place them at moderate distances apart and 

 the birds will follow them anywhere. 



In speaking of aviaries, I consider those that are movable, superior to fixed ones, so 

 as to enable the shifting to new grounds as often as convenient. 



In some parts of Germany, turkey hens are employed to hatch pheasant eggs. These 

 hens make excellent mothers and are capable of hatching and reanng twice the number of 

 poults that an ordinary hen can raise. 



COOP AND RUN FOR PHEASANT CHICKS 



The most practical way of keeping pheasants, and if you have the room, set aside two 

 separate runs for a pen of pheasants, and seed these runs in clover in the early spring and 

 change the birds from one to the next run weekly. It will be the means of securing an abun- 

 dance of eggs and keep the birds in the finest of health. Every breed of pheasants should 

 be kept separate. It is absolutely necessary to have the sun reach the aviary. I visited a 

 pheasantry on Long Island kept by a very rich man. The runs for the beautiful birds were 

 box stalls boarded up four feet and about six feet square. Around these little jails were 

 attached looking-glasses and the birds were compelled to see their ghosts all day. AH' I wish 

 to say, dear reader if I had to house in these little stalls I would go crazy within one month. 



