Practical Game-Preserving. 36 



abdomen is full and well developed around the vent, that 

 the eyes are clear and the feathering around them and 

 the beak is healthy. Birds not possessing these qualifi- 

 cations should be rejected ; but unless the preserver or his 

 keeper has acquired practical experience or instruction 

 in these matters, it is difficult to discriminate upon the 

 points named. 



Presuming that the hen birds have all been drawn 

 from the preserver's own coverts, then the cock birds 

 provided for them should be obtained from other sources. 

 They, in their turn, must be second-season birds also, and 

 of pure breed of their sort. Of course, it is perfectly 

 feasible that birds of opposite sexes from the same 

 coverts may be so far unrelated to prove sufficiently pro- 

 ductive of sound progeny ; but there are many chances 

 that such may not be the case, and it being so 

 easy a matter to exchange cock birds with other pre- 

 servers, or to obtain them of undoubted parentage from 

 other reputable and trustworthy sources of supply, there 

 is really no reason for failing to make this provision. 

 Nor is it advisable to lose sight of the fact that in stocking 

 the laying-pens the opportunity should be taken to acquire 

 some percentage of pure hens from other sources as well. 

 It is a fact largely overlooked that it is just as easy and 

 it is frequently as effective to renew the blood of the 

 pheasant stock through the hens as through the cocks. I 

 should therefore strongly advise preservers to bear this 

 fact in mind, and even if they do not avail themselves of 

 it in the first season, certainly to do so in the second or 

 succeeding ones. 



Sufficient has been said in the dealing with pheasant 

 crosses for the purposes of the ordinary preserver, but it 

 may be added here that, if the services of a versicolor cock 

 be employed for the penned birds, he will suffice for 



