April 11, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
297 
in preference to any others, as they will cover more eggs 
and have not the nervous character of the game bantams. 
A day or two before the eggs were expected to hatch 
the hen was shut into the box, as the chicks often escape 
from the nest almost as soon as they leave the shell, and 
get chilled. When the chicks were about 24 hours old 
the hen and her brood were moved to another coop, with 
yard attached. The nest in this is made of sod, grass side 
up and nearly flat, the old nest being too small and deep 
to allow the hen to brood over all her chicks without 
danger of smothering them. In moving them the hen 
was put into the yard with food and water, and the chicks 
were put in the new nest. When the hen had fed, the 
slide was opened to let her in to the nest, then the slide 
was shut and they were left undisturbed for twenty-four 
hours, when the top was opened, the hen removed to the 
yard to feed, the chicks fed sparingly on maggots and the 
hen allowed to go back. Until the chicks were 3 weeks 
old they were fed entirely on maggots. 
At the end of the little yard, next to the coop, two pieces 
of board 1ft. long and lOin. wide were fastened in the 
corner, making an inclosure for keeping the food and 
water for the hen where the chicks could not get it untiL 
they were old enough to fly over to it. The grain and 
water for the hen were kept clean and fresh in two small 
glazed dishes. 
The food for the sitting hens was the same as that given 
to the young pheasants after they were three or four weeks 
old, and consisted of one quart of whole wheat, one-half 
pint each cracked corn and Indian meal, a small handful 
of ground oyster shells, one spoonful each ground beef 
scraps and ground bone, all thoroughly mixed in a pan 
and boiling water poured over it, letting it stand Beveral 
hours before using. When the chicks are strong enough 
to go over the little food inclosure they will begin to feed 
on it; and by the time they are three or four weeks old it 
will constitute a greater part of their living, one ration of 
maggots per day being enough. 
The arrangement for raising maggots is simple and 
easily constructed. A small house 6 x8ft. and 6£ft. high 
was framed and covered with matched boards. Four win- 
dows were cut in it, but instead of glass they were covered 
on the outside with I'm. mesh wire cloth, and solid shut- 
ters hinged on the outside. A ventilator 8in. square and 
12ft. high was attached to the roof. By opening the door 
and windows, the house was sufficiently ventilated in a 
short time to do what work was necessary inside. Across 
one Bide, near the top and about lOin. from the boarding, 
a2x2in. joist was fastened, and thickly studded with 
small meat hooks. Twenty inches below this were placed 
hopper-shaped boxes, 18in. square at the top,12in. at bottom 
and 7in. deep, the bottom covered with Jin. mesh wire 
cloth. Below these were arranged tight drawers 18in. 
square and 4in. deep, around the tops of which were 
nailed strips of tin projecting inward about fin. , to prevent 
the maggots crawling out. 
After many experiments we found that sheep plucks 
were the cheapest and most available material for the pur- 
pose, thirty-six plucks a week producing enough food for 
about 200 young pheasant?. Three times a week from six 
to twelve plucks were spread in the morning on a hurdle 
covered with lin. mesh wire cloth set out of doors, and 
by night were fully blown, when they were taken into 
the house and hung on the hooks. Seven plucks will 
produce from four to seven quarts of maggots. The 
hopper boxes were about half rilled with a mixture of 
wheat bran and ground beef scraps (one quart of scraps 
to six of bran), thoroughly mixed and moistened with 
water. As this decomposes more slowly than the meat, it 
is well to mix it a day or two before the plucks are hung 
up. In about twenty-four hours (depending somewhat 
upon the temperature) the meat will be alive with mag- 
gots, which soon drop into the bran, where they find ad- 
ditional food and then drop into the drawers below. They 
are not in condition to use until the fourth or fifth day 
after the meat is blown, but if not then placed in a cool 
place will change to the chrysalid state, unfit for the 
chicks, in a few hours. By placing them in a refrigerator 
as soon as fully grown, where the temperature does not 
exceed 45°, further development is arrested, and they may 
be kept for several weeks. 
All this may not seem very enticing work, but it is a 
necessity, as this or some equivalent must be used for 
food to insure success in raising Mongolian pheasants. 
The chicks are so small and tender for the first two or 
three weeks that all efforts to raise them on the food 
recommended for the English pheasants end more or less 
in disappointment. 
After we began to feed on maggots the loss from dis- 
ease was slight, but a considerable number was lost by 
accidents, nervous game bantams, and hungry cats that 
sometimes grew so bold as to climb over the fence into 
the large inclosure. When the young pheasants were 
but three or four weeks old they flew over into the 
garden and the adjacent woods, and many became the 
prey of marauding cats, my only compensation being 
that several cats came to an untimely end. 
The treatment of the young Mongolian was quite differ- 
ent from the directions given for raising English pheas- 
ants. After the first week the board was taken away 
from the little yard, and the birds were allowed to go at 
pleasure into the large inclosure, shutting them up at 
night and letting them out in the morning, often by 5 
o'clock, making no effort to keep them out of the wet 
grass or rain. They sometimes came in dripping, but did 
not seem any the worse for it. As Mr. Gardiner says, 
they will stand any weather if properly fed. Coming 
from the rough climate of China and southern Sibeiia, 
they suffer more from the heat in July and August than 
lrom the most severe winter weather. 
Pheasant eggs are generally fertile, and under favorable 
circumstances will about all hatch. 
There are very few diseases that pheasants are subject 
to. The most common is roup, which attacks the chicks 
when from one to three weeks old, and is most prevalent 
in cold, damp weather, and generally the result of getting 
chilled. ■ As soon as one is affected with it, remove it, and 
move the coop to new ground. Keep the birds dry and 
warm, and they will not be much troubled with it. 
Young pheasants sometimes develop weakness in the 
legs, which comes from sitting on cold, hard ground or 
on boards. If they are left in the coop, the others may 
pick upon them and perhaps kill them. Remove them to 
a place where they can have plenty of soft bedding, food 
and water, and they will soon get over it. 
In handling pheasants, young or old, be careful to take 
them by the body, as their legs are easily broken, 
In raising maggots it is well to remember that if it is 
intended to raise them in large numbers flies must be pro- 
vided for that purpose. This is done by allowing a small 
part of each crop to mature. Flies are very prolific, de- 
positing their eggs in a few hours, after which they die. 
If it is expected to have the meat well covered with eggs 
a sufficient number of breeding flies must be ready when 
wanted. In my first efforts in this direction I did not re- 
gard this, as I had no idea that the supply of flies would 
give out, but soon found my mistake. If you are in touch 
with the Darwin theory and have any regard for the sur- 
vival of the fittest you will set steel traps around the 
house and one or two on top of posts set for that purpose. 
Homeless cats that ought never to have been, skunks, 
hawks and owls will contribute to swell your stock of 
food for the young pheasants. 
Stocking. 
Birds let loose in an unfamiliar place will be likely to 
scatter in every direction, and in a few days may be miles 
apart. To avoid this it may be desirable to make small 
coops of laths about 6ft. square and 2ft. high, with a small 
door that can be easily opened in one side. Place this 
coop in a quiet, partly shaded place, put the pheasants in 
it, and feed and water them for two or three weeks; then 
put plenty of food in, and quietly leave the door partly 
open, so that they can go in and out at will. If they are 
not frightened away they will come back to feed all 
through the fall and winter, and in that way will estab- 
lish a locality in the vicinity where they were let out, 
and will be of interest to the farmer as well as to the 
sportsman. 
Judge Denny, of Oregon, where they have become so 
plenty, says: "They have proved of great benefit to the 
farming and other agricultural pursuits in this State, in 
that they feed upon the pests and enemies of the crops — 
worms, grubs, borers, cutworms, flies, codling moths, 
aphis and other insect life, including their larvae— with- 
out doing any harm to the crops." 
The farmer can keep them on his farm by building a 
shed or lean-to in a sheltered place, or by standing boards 
up against a wall sufficient to keep bare ground on which 
to scatter grain or cracked corn during the few weeks of 
deep snow. The birds will learn to come for this food, 
instead of seeking it elsewhere. The location of all ani- 
mal life is a question of food. 
As an illustration of the hardinesB of these birds, I will 
state that there was sent me from Vancouver last August 
a small box containing one hen and six small pheasants 
about 3 weeks old. They were eight days on the journey, 
with no other food except dry wheat and water. When 
the box was placed in the aviary and opened, they burst 
from it like rockets. Some of them were so small that 
they went through the 2in. mesh wire netting, but 
returned at the call of the mother hen. Owing to the 
fact that there was no bedding on the bottom of the 
box, two of them developed some weakness of the legs, 
but soon recovered. I have fed them on corn meal mixed 
with a very little ground beef scraps, cracked corn, wheat 
and chopped cabbage, and more healthy birds could not 
be found. Being a very late brood, they were not more 
than half grown when fall snow came; and yet they 
frolicked and skipped through it as if it were their nat- 
ural element. Provided with shelter, they refused to take 
advantage of it, preferring to remain out day and night, 
no matter what might be the weather. 
The addition of the Mongolian pheasant to our fauna, 
with his splendid plumage, stately bearing, advantage to 
the farmer and interest to the sportsman, would more 
than repay for any extra care that might be required in 
some places for his maintenance and protection. 
Pheasant Rearing. 
Holland, Mich., March 30.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In reply to Mr. Brackett I will state briefly, first, my 
mode of feeding and rearing pheasants is that used by a 
gentleman who has had twenty-five years' experience in 
rearing them in England and who has kindly given me 
many valuable suggestions, which I have always profited 
by._ Second, by following the directions given in my 
article of March 7 I have frequently had every egg in a 
sitting hatch and have reared all of the young birds. 
It has been my experience that frequently the time of 
hatching of a sitting of eggs will cover a period of eight 
or ten hours. Now, since young pheasants will run soon 
after hatching, I have known the hen to leave the nest 
when but half the eggs were hatched. By removing the 
young birds when hatched this difficulty is obviated. If 
the nest boxes are made so deep that the young pheasants 
cannot jump out I have found that the hen will break 
many of the eggs by jumping upon them when she re- 
turns from feeding. Remember, all this refers to the 
English ring-neck. With us, as with many others who 
are interested in rearing pheasants for stocking purposes, 
the Chinese has, so far, proved a complete failure in my 
hands. The eggs hatch all right, but the young, almost 
without exception, die in a week or two. I have tried 
different kinds of food, but the result is always the same. 
Mr. Brackett will confer a favor upon a great many of 
us who are endeavoring to rear pheasants if he will 
kindly give ub his method of rearing the Chinese bird 
through the columns of "our paper." 
As I stated before, the English ring-necks which we 
have liberated passed through the winter all right, and 
we expect a large increase if the hatching season is 
favorable. Arthur G. Baumgartel, 
Sec'y Rod and Gun Club. 
Keeping Game. 
Cazenovia, N. Y., March 31.— I killed during the last 
week in October two grouse weighing lib. 14oz., lib. 
15£oz,, and hung them in an upper room on the north side 
of the house. This is used for a store room and is unfin- 
ished. Yesterday I dressed them; to-day had them for 
dinner. One would think from their appearance and 
taste that they had been killed about the first of the week, 
and one wonders how long a game bird will keep under 
similar conditions. H. Cruttenden. 
Missouri Game. 
Southern, Mo. — The quail have wintered splendidly in 
this region, and if we can have a good hatching season 
our supply will be as large as it was before the freeze-oufc 
of '95. Ducks are reported plentiful. I have been too 
busy to see. I do enjoy Forest and Stream. It reaches 
me on Saturday and is refreshing after a hard week' 8 
work. Sac. 
Adirondack Deer. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In all the discussion relative to preserving: deer in the 
Adirondacks, I do not recall a single instance where 
speaker or writer has suggested reducing the number of 
deer that one man may lawfully kill in one season. 
At present the legal number is two. 
Now, if the real object is to preserve deer, why not re- 
duce that legal number to one? This would bo just as 
effective as the prohibitory measures now pending at 
Albany, and which will cut off hounding and jacking. I 
do not plead for these methods. I am willing to take any 
chances with other still-hunters, but if protection and 
preservation of game are really wanted, here is a simple 
method whose effectiveness all must admit and which 
would work no hardship to any class of sportsmen, 
whether obliged to take their vacation early or late in the 
season. In view of all the discuasion and shades of opin- 
ion, and, so far as I have observed, ignoring this point of 
legal number, I cannot help thinking there is force in the 
suggestion so pertinently made by some of your recent 
correspondents, viz, : that there is a large degree of selfish- 
ness in much that is written on this subject. Juvenal. 
Jacobstaff Receives a Tribute. 
Jersey City, March 30 — Upon opening my mail on 
Saturday evening I found a box containing a fine head of 
a woodcock. The bill was 3in. in length, showing a fine 
specimen of this great game bird. Mr Wm. P. Board- 
man's cat had captured the bird and brought it to the 
porch. The bird was immediately confiscated as taken 
out of season. Upon reporting the matter to the 
sportsmen's assembly at Numan's, the headquar- 
ters of the lovers of the rod and gun in America, 
it was unanimously voted to send the same to Jacobstaff . 
"That," they said, "would bring him up here again when 
the season opens." Well, you may be sure it will. 
But it is too bad. The ruthless capture of this head of 
a family may be the means of decreasing the woodcock 
in those swales by two, perhaps four members, Confound 
a cat, anyway. The body was not sent to us, as Mr. 
Boardman's little "handmaiden" is still on duty and 
knows how to prepare such delicacies. Jacobstaff. 
A i PR NG IDYL. 
The Poetry of Angling. 
"It is not all of fishing to fish." To some this may 
seem an unwarrantable assumption, but by many it is 
now accepted as the tersest expression of a fact having 
all the force of a syllogism. 
In patriarchal and mediaeval times the fisherman was 
accorded an honorable place in the limited vocations 
then open to man in which to earn a livelihood for him- 
self and dependants, and because his labors added to the 
food supply of less favored localities. The gratification 
of mere animal wants, the selfish and mercenary alone, 
prompting doubtless then as now, when higher motives 
do not impel, made the fisherman a mere laborer, where 
work was an irksome task, and whose only enjoyment 
was measured by financial results. 
There was but little healthy sentiment in an age when 
might was right, and when it was the plan: 
"That they should take who have the power, 
And they should keep who can." 
Of such a fisherman it may be truthfully affirmed, "It 
is all of fishing to fish." 
"A primrose by the river's brim 
A primrose is to him, and nothing more." 
But with the evolution of society, and the ascendancy 
of principle over might in government, the selfish and 
animal in our nature was ameliorated and softened, and 
the wholly selfish was largely dominated by the aesthetic 
and sentimental. 
In no direction is this uplifting and ennobling of hu- 
manity more easily discerned and traced than in what is 
now comprehended under the very general term of 
sportsmanship, and in no subdivision thereof is the trail 
so well defined as in that blazed by the angler. 
The older poets sing his praises and accord him honoi*- 
able distinction in their immortal works, and in the early 
dawn of English literature appeared what competent 
writers and judges pronounce the leading pastoral classic 
in our language, "The Cornpleat Angler," by Izaak 
Walton. 
Overworked professional and business men found then, 
as they find now, recreation, pleasure and renewed ener- 
gy in the sights which come to their eyes and the sounds 
that fall pleasantly on their ears, and who will wonder 
that the contents of the creel are the less valued part? 
Going forth in the early morning to his favorite trout 
brook, nature speaks to his spirit under many forms. Her 
voice captivates not his ears alone, but she appeals to 
what is best within him through his every sense. 
The domination of winter is at an end, and on every 
hand there is a rea waking and bursting forth. The snow- 
capped hills of yesterday nave disappeared, and their dull 
brown robes of autumn time blend more in harmony 
with the dark green of the conifers beyond; but vernal 
Bhowers, like a magic wand, will soon deck all in tints of 
emerald green. The swelling buds of the maple and the 
bursting catkins of the willow tell him that nature is 
aroused from her winter's sleep; but the beauty of a flit- 
ting bluebird in the copse diverts his thoughts, while the 
melody of the song sparrow seems like spring's triumphal 
note of joy. 
Already has he forgotten the perplexities and annoy- 
ances of every-day cases; already he drinks in with each 
deep inspiration renewed draughts of health; already haB 
he broken away from the withering restraints and nar- 
rowing prejudices of conventional life; again he i3 in 
touch with what is grand, strengthening and elevating in 
nature. 
Bat he has not yet wet his line nor baited his hook, nor 
have his eyes yet seen the tiny cascades of the purling 
brook, nor traced its sinuous course through the meadow. 
The morning grows apace, but our fisherman hastens 
not his steps. Crossing a stone wall, which passes 
through a growth of mountain laurel and white birches, 
