108 Y. Malisoux—The O.P.S. Must Save Many Rare Pheasants



(2) Those which require more delicate food but can also stand

regular meals.


(3) Those which cannot stand regular meals and require (or they

will die) very small but frequent quantities of specially digestible

food. One might say that it is, therefore, sufficient to classify them

in categories. Not at all. This classification is not possible. To begin

with in the same species you find birds with different digestive capability.

Feeble germination, an egg which has been transported from some

distance, faulty incubation, etc., are often the causes of a chick passing

to the most exigent category. Again the same chick is not always in

the same category: if it catches cold or suffers from thirst or is badly

pecked by another chick or above all has a slight indigestion, caused

perhaps by eating a bad worm or too many ant cocoons, the chick will

fall from the first to the last rank.


When the alimentary category of a chick is known in time it is

always possible to make it live, if the place is hygienic. I mean by

this that when one gives a certain sort or quantity of food, one ought

to know the likely result on the chick’s digestion four hours later.

This is very important as at the moment you notice you have made

a small mistake you have always four hours to undo it before the case

becomes desperate. But it is obviously impossible to discover this

without close observation. When it is a question of a new species,

it is necessary, for example, to examine the excrement of each chick

during several hours every day to discover which is the normal dropping

for each kind of food. It is easily understood that this work is not

possible with a large number of chicks. Complete success is not,

therefore, possible in the very rare species if every chick is not reared

individually. In fact large collections are bound to keep to the system

of broods with unavoidable losses.


Conclusions


If the O.P.S. wish to prevent the extinction of rare species there

are two roads to follow :—


(1) To favour the acquisition by specialists in rearing, of fertile

eggs, fresh or incubated, or freshly hatched chicks or imported pairs

of confirmed free breeders.


(2) Or combine the efforts of these specialists with those of the

amateur who has the good fortune to possess such birds.



