Practical Game-Preserving. 74 



game. The presence of slight mould upon the pithy side 

 of the grain is evidence of its having been heated. 



Leaving home-grown grain on one side, a few further 

 remarks may be made for the guidance of preservers 

 purchasing foreign grain for game-feeding purposes. 

 Thus many of the cheaper foreign wheats of harder 

 character than home-grown are equally suitable for feeding 

 in covert. Foreign feeding barley, notably those sorts 

 which have been clipped, is equally good and cheaper ; 

 foreign oats, especially the cheap sorts, are for the most 

 part unsuitable. Syrian dari is superior to other sorts, 

 as is also Danubian millet. Canadian white peas are 

 very suitable and of moderate price, the coarser linseed is 

 the best for game-feeding, and the price of canary seed 

 varies many shillings a quarter, according to the time of 

 year when it is purchased. It is possible also to secure 

 at a very moderate cost, from the firms dealing in grain 

 offal, mixtures of the impurities which come out in the 

 process of dressing some foreign wheats. These screenings 

 afford a cheap and an excellent form of food for pheasants 

 and partridges at all stages, and are especially suitable 

 for feeding the progeny of wild nesting birds when 

 natural food is scarce. 



Another matter which it would be as well to refer to 

 here is the supply of grit for the birds. It is of little use 

 feeding them properly if the means for masticating the 

 food be not provided. Ground heavily stocked with 

 pheasants, even the coverts on some lands, will become 

 depleted of surface grit, and the birds will resort to all 

 sorts of substances to replace it, mostly deleterious to 

 their well-being. In the rearing-fields, therefore, and 

 later about the coops when birds are being transferred to 

 covert, ample provision of a supply of grit should be 

 made, whilst if there be any shortage of it in the 



