75 



Pheasants. 



coverts, loads of suitable grit should be scattered along the 

 rides and the outsides. 



Speaking generally, a mixed diet or a varied diet is far 

 more suited to either pheasant poults or the mature birds 

 than one of one character. Thus in corn countries i.e., 

 those where the preserves embrace large areas of arable 

 ground there may be a larger proportion of maize fed 

 than upon purely pasture ground, where wheat, oats, and 

 barley should predominate. Peas and beans should be 

 fed to the birds during cold and wet weather. The 

 practice of giving what may be called highly spiced food 

 to pheasants as a stimulating factor has very little to 

 recommend it, and is best avoided altogether. It certainly 

 may have a transitory effect, but the reaction is corre- 

 spondingly bad. At the same time, in periods of very 

 hard weather or long spells of wet and cold, an admixture 

 of a very small quantity of peppercorns and pimento may 

 be given with the other food. 



In feeding pheasants, either forward poults or the 

 mature birds, in covert, the keeper has a difficult task 

 before him, because unless the quantity of food placed for 

 the birds is properly adjusted to the number to be fed, 

 either there will be a large waste or else the birds will be 

 insufficiently fed, and consequently deteriorate in quality 

 from a shooting point of view. According to the number 

 of birds in covert, the way in which each covert may be 

 divided by rides or even by flushing-trigs, so the 

 scheme of feeding must be determined. It should be the 

 aim of the gamekeeper to adopt such system of feeding 

 as shall not lead to bringing his birds in too great quanti- 

 ties to one or more centres. The tendency with pheasants 

 is to start roaming about as soon as they have satisfied the 

 first cravings of their hunger. It should be his aim, at the 

 same time, to feed birds as little 1 upon the outsides of the 



