i 2 y Pheasants. 



recommendations I have given in the chapters on feeding 

 and rearing. Most of the firms who cater for preservers' 

 requirements supply preparations specially designed to 

 meet the want, and I should like to be able to single out 

 one of them as being entirely satisfactory and likely to 

 prove suitable to the average preserver; but this is im- 

 practicable where so many nearly achieve what appears at 

 present to be the impossible. I am inclined to think that 

 an efficient substitute will be found in some preparation of 

 dried fish, probably in some of those forms of sun-dried, 

 unsalted fish-roes which are a cheap and an abundant 

 commodity in some portions of Europe and elsewhere, and 

 of whose merits in this respect I have some experience. 

 As things go, however, it is impossible to do more than 

 offer suggestions, because whatever may be recommended 

 to replace natural insect-food, it must fall short in one 

 direction or another, and it is likely that if preservers 

 would depend much more upon correct choice of rearing- 

 fields in regard to this point they would serve their 

 interests far better than in endeavouring to find a satis- 

 factory substitute. 



Catching-up Birds. When pheasants have to be caught 

 up for penning purposes, or for one or other of the reasons 

 besides which make this operation necessary, they should 

 be secured by those means most unlikely to cause un- 

 necessary fright or inconvenience to the birds. When hen- 

 birds are turned away from the laying-pens, others will 

 have to be caught up again sooner or later. The first- 

 named should be marked in some effective but simple 

 means, so as not to be included in any future catching 

 which may be undertaken, as fresh birds should be 

 provided each season. 



There are many forms of traps upon the market for 

 taking single birds; but this is often a troublesome and 



