M. Amsler—Breeding Results at Delmonden Manor 39


one through, out of eight lusty youngsters, and exactly the same may

be said of Peacock Pheasants or Chinquis. I have little doubt that

rats and stoats accounted for most of my losses—the broods just became

gradually smaller. Elliot’s naturally suffered the most because not only

are they somewhat wild with their keeper, but they are also inveterate

wanderers ; some of my young birds, long before they were entirely

weaned from their foster-mother, used to wander right away into

adjacent fields, which were not my property.


As against this feature, young Peacock Pheasants are seldom seen

more than three or four yards distant from their home coop—but

I think this species is delicate in the early stages, at any rate this

was my own experience ; also they are dreadfully pugnacious. None

the less they are quite my favourites.


Although in this species the hen only lays two eggs to the clutch

the process is repeated, provided the eggs are taken away, and my

little hen produced ten eggs altogether. Reeve’s are easy and the

chicks are wonderfully tame and intelligent from the very first.

Edward’s arrived too late for me to expect any eggs.


I have learned a good deal about the rearing of game birds during

the past two years—all by dint of asking questions, and most of what

I know has been accumulated by pestering a near neighbour, Mr. Philip

Guest, of the Moor Game Farm, who rears some 3,000 Pheasants yearly

among which may be numbered a goodly proportion of the so-called

fancy or ornamental Pheasants.


When the breeding season approaches the cocks of some species

even if provided with three or more hens are inclined to be spiteful to

the point of murder, and the usual advice given is to provide plenty of

brushwood and such-like as “ hides ” for the hens—in practice these

refuges may be the hen’s undoing as she may find herself in a cul-de-sac

where the male has her at his mercy.


My own plan has been to cut the flight feathers of one wing in the

male or to “ tie ” the wing. The hens soon learn that they are safe

if they get on a high perch and do so the moment the male begins

to be troublesome.


The males again are the worst culprits as regards egg-eating. As

the hens usually lay from 5 o’clock onwards in the evening it is easy,



