IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 



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Food. — In their wild state pheasants are omnivorous in appetite, 

 feeding on grains, seeds, fruits, tender shoots of plants, vegetables, 

 insects, worms, slugs, and even small lizards; their diet in captivity 

 should, therefore, be as varied as possible, with due regard to the 

 conditions of climate and circumstances affecting animal life. An early 

 meal, consisting of Indian-corn, barley, wheat or other grain, pounded 

 together with a small quantity of egg-shell; green food later on, and 

 grains and seeds and a few grasshoppers or meal worms the last thing 

 in the evening, appear from experience to be as good a dietary for 

 pheasants and other gallinaceous birds in captivity as can be devised. 

 The ingredients must of necessity vary according to the season of the 

 year, appetite of birds, and other conditions. Boiled onions and 

 potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs, shell and all, may be occasionally added. 

 During the rains and winter the latter should be invariably given at 

 least twice a week ; fresh green food, and if possible a few fruits and 

 berries, should be daily supplied ; if the grass runs be tolerably spacious, 

 a small plot in each may be planted with spinage, salads, lemon-grass, 

 and some succulent vegetables, and this can be easily managed ; a wattle 

 hurdle being enough to prevent the birds picking up the seeds and eating 

 the tender shoots as they appear. After they are sufficiently grown, the 

 hurdles can be removed for an hour or two daily to enable the birds to 

 enjoy nibbling at fresh green food. Before, however, the latter is 

 trampled and eaten down, the hurdles should be put up again to allow a 

 fresh crop to grow. Much of course will depend upon careful and intelli- 

 gent management and constant attention. Pheasants are often fed with 

 tit bits by visitors in the afternoon, and if the keeper is observant and 

 careful, he should watch the quantities eaten, and regulate their evening 

 allowance of grains and seeds accordingly. The time for feeding should 

 be very early in the morning and very late in the evening during the 

 winter ; and about seven in the morning and five in the afternoon in 

 summer; the green food always between 9 aud 10 in the forenoon. A 

 healthy bird takes about 10 to 15 minutes to eat up its food, so that 

 all remnants should be removed after about half an hour ; this will 

 have the effect of diminishing the inroads of rats, which are generally 

 attracted by food lying about. A piece of Mirzapore stone, about a 

 foot square, hollowed out so as to leave a rim 1 inch deep, forms a capital 

 feeding vessel. Pheasants should be always fed in one place, and for 

 this purpose the sleeping apartment should be preferred ; abundant 

 supply of clean drinking-water should be kept in a cool place, and the 

 drinking vessel daily scoured. Lime in some form or other is most 

 necessary for the pheasants and other gallinaceous birds, and for this 

 purpose plasters of an old building appear to be the best. 



Breeding. — The climate of Bengal is generally unfavourable for 

 breeding pheasants, and any aviary unprovided with retiring corners 

 militates against successful breeding. Some pheasants, however, such 

 as the silver, lineated, and Cuvieir's (which have bred and reared their 

 young in this garden), breed almost in any climate if properly housed 

 and treated, and a few others may do the same under favourable 

 circumstances. Attention to the following details will be found 

 useful in breeding and rearing pheasants and other gallinaceous birds : — 

 A proper pheasantry of the type mentioned above, is the first 

 requisite ; the pairs should be well matched, and two or more species should 



