14



Y. Malisoux—Questions Answered



technically make it more easily broken, but the lively chick has no

need of this assistance. The only reason for scraping the egg is to

cleanse soiled portions.


Supposing the eggshell is too thick ? Even here it is useless. It

is not because the thick shell is too hard to pierce, but because it

prevents evaporation from the chick of the water engendered during

incubation, and at the moment of the actual hatching this extra water

makes it too swollen to escape.


Difficulties in rearing Pheasants vary according to circumstances

and also according to the treatment given by the breeder. “ Circum¬

stances ” stand for the condition of the parent, the weather, exposure,

and, above all, the soil.


In fairly good weather and above all on a non-clayey soil breeding

is often quite easy. A light soil is best, and the ideal is to change it

every time. But I have sometimes known novices rear birds quite

successfully under conditions where I would have declared not a single

chick would be reared. This summer a man showed me a box con¬

taining a sheet of newspaper, and on it six ring-necks with their hen

foster-mother. The Pheasants were six weeks old and not in bad

condition. This is one of those lessons in humility which providence

bestows on specialists. It is within the power of every fancier to

rear a fair percentage of Pheasant provided the weather is passable

and the ground and silkies are healthy. This alas ! is not our lot!

Our ground is so bad that even the bam door fowl chicks do badly

on it.


For all that we are determined to reach and do reach about 96 per

cent success with rare Pheasants no matter what the weather or the

season. But it must be understood that the difficulty increases, and,

as I remarked before, results vary.


II. Should Firebacks have heat in winter ? Decidedly not. It is

useless, and probably bad for them. I gave my opinion on this question

in the February, 1936, number of the Avicultural Magazine, and

I have repeated it for the readers of the O.P.S. Journal.


It is true that I only have experience of the Siamese, Bornean

Crested, and Yieillot’s Firebacks, but in all probability the other

species require the same treatment.



