THE GOLDEN PHEASANT. 
25 
with a quantity of which I always was prepared prior to ‘the young 
being hatehed. I took care to have a constant supply during the 
season, by hanging a cow’s liver over a barrel, in the bottom of whieh was 
some bran or saw dust, into which the maggots dropped. A fresh liver 
was hung up about once a week. In addition to these larvse, the young 
were supplied with potatoes, alum curd, groats, and Indian corn meal, 
when to be had ; this last I found they were very fond of, and it seemed 
to agree with them particularly well. It was mixed into the form of 
soft dough with a little water, which was all that was required. They 
were also constantly supplied with green food, such as lettuce, when, 
they were in the aviary. But the best way is to have a coop, railed in 
front, into which they are put with the hen twenty -four hom’s after they 
are hatehed. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as near 
to the windows of the house as possible, so that they may always be 
within observation ; a small verdure garden is the best possible locality, 
as the young have plenty of range, with shelter under the bushes from 
both sun and rain. In the instance which I have already alluded to, 
the hen was allowed to range about six feet from the coop, by means of 
a small cord attached to a leather strap round one of her legs and the 
other end tied to the coop ; the young pheasants never wandered far 
from the hen, and always came into the coop to remain with her at 
night. In front of each coop a small frame was put down, boxed round 
on three sides, without a bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was 
put close to the coop, and the young birds could run through the rails 
of the coop into the enclosed space, and were safe from the night 
attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was alvrays kept before the (;oops 
for the first few days after the young were hatched, and until they 
became acquainted with the call of the hen. When I first began to rear 
young pheasants I could not at all account for their seemingly foolish 
manner for the first two or three days after being hatehed ; they would 
run gaping about without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to 
them to come for food. The reason of this I afterwards believed to 
have been owing to their ignorance of the language of their fos- 
ter-mother, which it took some time for them to understand : 
during this proeess it is necessary to keep them confined within 
the frame before their coops, as were they to wander a few vards 
from the hen they would not heed her call, and would inevitably perish. 
When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, if they are to be kept 
