THE GAME BREEDER HI 



a good plan in preparing safe and at- machinery and where they will be pro- 

 tractive nesting sites to select a fence tected as far as possible from the ground 

 corner or to plant the briars and foods and winged enemies which may escape 

 near a tree or at the edge of a wood, the attentions of the game keeper, as 

 In a pasture or grass field one or two some surely will. 



fruit trees can be planted near the pro- J^^^the nestmg season the keeper 



, , . ., ^ „ , ,, ^ ... „^.„ should visit the nests without disturb- 



posed nesting site and the fruit wi ^^^ ^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ 



prove attractive to the birds and will ^^^^ vermin. A few years ago it was 



tend to hold them m the autumn. The deemed best, in England, that partridge 



quail preserver should see that there be ^^^^^ should escape attention altogether, 



at least one attractive and, safe nesting ^^^^ Maxwell says: "In the text book of 



place in every field and he should en- today this sentence should be re- worded 



deavor to see that the birds nest where and read. Certainly it is best that no 



the nests will not be destroyed by farm partridge nest should escape attention." 



WILD BRED PHEASANTS. 



When preasants are bred wild in the from 1,400 to 2,000 per year. The 



fields and woods the cost of rearing is pheasants are not fed at all between 



very small in comparison with the cost April and October, after which maize is 



of hand-rearing. In America vermin is thrown down in the woods in propor- 



so plentiful that the losses of wild-bred tion as they require it. In 1910 the total 



birds, undoubtedly, will be large on many maize during the year was 27 quarters ; 



areas, which otherwise are very suitable also eight loads of barley in the straw. 



for pheasants. No new blood is ever introduced, the 



The pheasant is said to be a notably owner being a confirmed believer in in- 

 bad mother. There are stories of hen breeding, believing that thus you obtain 

 pheasants wandering on regardless of the a race which is most fit for the condi- 

 fact that the little chicks have fallen in tions prevailing in the locality, 

 a ditch or have been left behind because Describing how, in his opinion, "that 

 ihey could not get over or through an (so-called) bad mother, the hen pheas- 

 obstruction. One reason assigned for ant, came to be such a model mat- 

 the fact that hen pheasants are bad moth- ron, as she undoubtedly is, on this es- 

 ers is that these birds have been hand- tate," the owner of the preserve says : 

 reared so long (the eggs being hatched "Many years ago it occurred to me that 

 and brooded by domestic hens), that it might be possible to improve the par- 

 they have lost the maternal instinct to ental qualities of the pheasant by the 

 a large extent. force of example, and having learned 



On a preserve, thirty miles from Lon- that the period of incubation of that ex- 

 don, many pheasants are wild-bred every cellent mother, the partridge, was the 

 season and the shooting is uniformly same as that of the pheasant, I instructed 

 good. After taking part in a covert shoot rny keepers to place two pheasant eggs 

 on this preserve. Captain Aymer Max- in each of a large number of partridges' 

 well says, he was surprised to learn that nests, with the result that I have seen the 

 no pheasants were ever hand-reared young pheasant at an early stage of its 

 th-^re. Lord Verulam, the owner, sup- life in the covey with the young of the 

 plied him with an interesting account partridge, 

 of the wild pheasants. This was continued for several years 



The average yield of pheasants is and no pheasants have been turned out 



