Practical Game-Preserving. 38 



artificial pheasant 's-egg under each shrub or bunch of 

 cover, and leave it there during the laying time. Re- 

 move the eggs twice daily, at feeding-time, placing them 

 in carrying-boxes containing bran, and with their small 

 ends downwards. 



Penned pheasants should be disturbed as little as 

 possible, be fed and attended to by the same person, who 

 should signal his coming at feeding-times and otherwise 

 by whistling. Light-coloured clothes are better than dark, 

 and when the pens are entered, always go round them in 

 the same direction, avoiding sudden movements as far as 

 possible. The laying-pens should be well protected from 

 annoyance by poaching dogs and cats ; they must be well 

 guarded according to their position, either by a watcher 

 or by guard dogs attached to wires running round the pens 

 at a suitable distance. It must be remembered that upon 

 the safety and success of the laying-pens depends the 

 outcome of the shooting season, and no possibility must 

 be offered or permitted for the happening of failure. 



Whether regarded as a material source of supply or as 

 entirely auxiliary, the eggs obtainable from the nests of the 

 wild birds cannot be entirely ignored upon the big pre- 

 serves, whilst they must provide the main supply for hand- 

 rearing upon the small ones. It behoves every game- 

 keeper to know the whereabouts of as nearly all the wild 

 pheasants' nests as is reasonably possible; consequently, 

 the search for them is no additional item of duty except 

 that it requires to be made more assiduously and at 

 a very early date. As a rule, the end of April is 

 sufficiently early for the searching to commence, but the 

 preserver must be guided by the state of the season and 

 the movements of his birds. This finding of the wild 

 birds' nests is, however, no easy matter, and a keeper 

 requires to be also a good woodman to become adept at 



