By Ferd. J. Sudow, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 



51 



attention to the young birds used for that purpose, for after they pass the stage where they 

 require artificial food they naturally leave their foster mother and seek their freedom. 



"One of the greatest dangers to the successful rearing of pheasants is from lice. We 

 begin to fight these pests from the time that the sitting hens are brought to the grounds until 

 the pheasants are able to care for themselves, after which they spend much of the time rolling 

 in the dust and sand which is Nature's method of keeping off these insect pests. 



"The coops and chicken houses are thickly coated with whitewash and they are frequent- 

 ly sprinkled with other insect-preventive washes. In a season we use barrels of different 

 washes. 



"As soon as the broody or sitting hens are bought, they are thoroughly dusted with in- 

 sect powder and their feet and legs are dipped in kerosene oil. The hens are placed on trial 

 nests and given a setting of China eggs. A few days later the hen is transferred to the regular 

 sitting boxes, nesting material that was in the trial box is burned and the coop fumigated. 

 Then the old lady receives her set of pheasant eggs and is disturbed as little as possible until 

 the eggs hatch. This method eliminates the possibility of insects infecting the chicks. One 

 should never put a hen on pheasant's eggs immediately after her legs have been oiled, for 

 the oil will kill the life germ. 



"Body lice are not very harmful, the head lice are the ones we dread and fight most. 

 When the young pheasants are taken from the incubator and before they are placed in the 

 brooding coop with their foster mother, their heads and the bare spots beneath their wings 

 and about their thighs are well greased with vaseHne and a very weak solution of carbolic 

 acid. This operation is repeated about every week until they become difficult to catch. 



"Students of Natural History enjoy visiting the brooding grounds during the height of 

 the season, from June to August, when hours at a time can be spent watching the little birds 

 from a distance, as it is risky to allow strangers to enter — except by special invitation — the 

 brooding grounds as they might unintentionally trample on the yoimg birds, which, when 



they are frightened run and hide in the grass 

 instead of going to the mother as an ordinary 

 young chicken does. Even the gamekeepers 

 have to exercise great caution in this respect 

 and walk as much as possible in the weU- 

 beaten paths leading from one brooding coop 

 to another in the rearing fields. These coops 

 are moved on alternate days about the length 

 of one on to new grass on account of cleanli- 

 ness. 



"You see the natural instinct of all game 

 birds of this family to hide at the sight of dan- 

 ger, causes the young pheasants to take shelter 

 in the grass as soon as they get scared. But 

 the crafty little chicks are much brighter than 

 would be supposed, for they soon learn the 

 uniform of the keepers and will come for their 

 food quite like little chickens, but the instant 

 Even when I visit the grounds I have to re- 

 in the 



If you want to be as prosperous and 

 fat as this farmer, breed pheasants 



that a stranger appears they scud for shelter, 



main motionless for some time before they gain confidence and come out of hiding, 



meantime little heads appear here, there and everywhere, and finally they leave their hiding 



places, 



"Thousands of pheasants ranging in age from a few days, to birds almost ready to fly, 

 swarm in the grass. They do not play as do young animals for young birds seldom frolic, 

 but as you look over the meadow you see the grass waving here and there where the multi- 

 tude is busily engaged catching grasshoppers and insects. 



