Practical Game-Preserving. 60 



respective foster-hens. It is necessary to exercise dis- 

 cretion in regard to both the time of day when the removal 

 of the broods takes place, and also the opening of the 

 coops after they are placed in them. If the weather be 

 generally favourable, they may be opened an hour or so 

 after the broods are disposed in the coops, it being always 

 advisable to allow the hen to mother the chicks a little 

 before the latter receive liberty to leave the coop. It is at 

 this time that I recommend the general use of runs for the 

 broods for the first day or two, and it will be obvious to 

 anyone that the keeper employing them stands at a distinct 

 advantage over those who do not. 



As food and feeding will be dealt with fully in the 

 following chapter, there is no necessity to touch upon that 

 matter now, and we can follow, therefore, the course of 

 existence of the chicks until such time as they are trans- 

 ferred to the coverts. Unless any of the broods be 

 removed for the reasons already mentioned, the young 

 pheasants will continue to occupy the coops until they 

 begin to develop their second tails and become too 

 large to enter them freely, which will be when they 

 are about two months old. It then becomes necessary 

 to effect their transference to the coverts, where they will 

 remain permanently. This may be accomplished in one 

 moving or in several ; but the birds must be brought 

 to suitable sites along the covert-side or in the rides 

 at such time as will ensure their first attempts at 

 roosting outside the coops being made upon the handy 

 trees or high, strong bushes adjoining the coops. When 

 choosing the positions for these it is advisable to select 

 sites as open as possible that is, where there is little or 

 no thick ground-growth otherwise the young poults are 

 more likely to roost amongst this at first than in the 

 trees. In any case, they will not go far from the coops, 



