CHAPTER III. 



PHEASANTS : Maintenance and Increase of Stock. 



PRESERVES which contain a fair sprinkling of pheasants, 

 sufficient to give, say, a month of good ' ' rough shooting, ' ' 

 will, unless the ground be extremely unfavourable, 

 generally make up in natural increase any numerical 

 diminution which the gun of the sportsman may cause; 

 consequently, the only aids which are necessary or advis- 

 able, were it not desired to raise the head of birds above a 

 certain limit, can take the shape of an introduction of 

 fresh blood, either by birds exchanged from a distance, or 

 by the obtaining of eggs from distantly situated localities, 

 and hatching them out, while in those years when no fresh 

 strain is desirable, one can profit by the fact of pheasants 

 laying many more eggs than they rear young birds, and 

 obtain from the preserves a necessary complement of such 

 and hand-rear from them. It might also be just as satis- 

 factory to raise the necessary fresh stock in a covert pen 

 after the nature of that described in the last chapter. For 

 this there is no need to give further instructions, as any 

 modifications would suggest themselves to the preserver 

 when necessary. Upon the other hand, a proper system 

 with birds penned for laying purposes, and arrangements 

 made for hand-rearing upon a suitable scale, is likely to 

 prove of much greater advantage. 



The most practical, and at the same time the most 

 satisfactory, manner of maintaining the same quantity of 



