100 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 6. 
adapted to extract pleasure during a life which is not gene¬ 
rally considered to abound in enjoyment. 
No pursuits are so healthful and invigorating as those 
that are properly called field sports. Hunting and shooting 
are the principal of these; and while it is impossible for 
1 some to follow the first, there are few who cannot, more or 
less, indulge the second. 
Fancy a man, cabined, cribbed, and confined in London 
eleven months of the year, looking forward to the first two 
weeks of September and October. The change of scene; 
the enjoyment of the fresh air; the liberty; the absence of 
care; the sweet,light sleep from over fatigue; the luncheon 
under the hedge; and the health that results from them ; 
who can wonder at some little enthusiasm ? and if in his 
day dream he anticipates the time when he shall be' able to 
enjoy more leisure, he is middle-aged before this time comes, 
and the few shots he worked hard for some years agone will 
not now content him. He cannot walk as he did till the 
birds were driven to some covert where they would lie. Ilis 
circumstances are improved, and his ideas have risen with 
them. His day dream is now’ of Pheasants. He has none, 
but ho will turn some out. His means are not sufficient, 
or his manor not large enough, to justify him in engaging a 
keeper who will relieve him of all difficulty. Or, it may be, 
that enough of his early habits remain to make him desirous 
to see to them himself; but he knows little of them, and 
having before drawn from the source of The Cottage 
Gardener, he applies again for information, which we are 
happy to give. 
We will begin with a few observations on Pheasants in a 
state of nature. Water is very essential to a covert, and a 
running stream is half food. Thex-e should never be more 
than three hens to a cock. Five eggs should be taken out 
of every nest, and these should be set under hens; all birds 
so reared are as many saved to the manoi\ Proof: no hen j 
Pheasant ever l’enrs more than seven birds; or, at least, that 
is the ascei’tained average of eyes. Now, as a hen Pheasant 
lays from thirteen to fifteen eggs, and generally hatches all i 
but two or three, it is thereby proved she cannot rear them, i 
If five be taken away, she will hatch all, and will have as j 
many left as she can bring up. Every bird, then, reared 
from the eggs thus taken is a gain. 
Tame Pheasants should be kept in mews, or laying places. \ 
Each should contain a cock and thi’ee hens. It should be 
eighteen feet long by ten wide, enclosed with hurdles made I 
of oak lath, or other wood, seven feet high, and the laths 
three-quarters-of-an-inch apart. They should be fastened j 
to strong poles driven into the ground. They l-eqnire no j 
covering over head of any sort; they need no shelter; and 
as their wings are cut they cannot fly out. If there are : 
bushes in the pens, so much the better; if not, a felled fir- I 
tree may be laid down, and a little hollow’ made beneath it, 
which should be filled with dry sand, as the hens will lay 
there. Their eggs should be carefully gathered as fast as 
they are laid, otherwise, for the love of mischief, they will 
often peck them, and, having tasted, they will become con¬ 
firmed egg-eaters. But, as it sometimes happens, the eggs j 
are eaten for the sake of the shell, thei’ewith to form thatof the 1 
egg about to be laid, it will often be prevented if the pen is ! 
pi-ovided with a heap of bricklayer’s l-ubbish, old ceiling, Ac., 
in one corner. They must be well supplied with water, and 
fed on the best barley. 
A moderate-sized hen will cover fifteen eggs; three or 
moi’e hens should be set at the same time. They must j 
! have a quiet, sheltei-ed place, exposed neither to wind, wet, 
nor a broiling sun. We will now detail an operation which : 
requires some practice, but which can be acquired. After '■ 
five days good sitting the poults are beginning to form in 
the eggs. Stand in a sheltered, darkish place, Where you 
j have the sun in front of you, take the egg in your hand, 
place it at one end, and close the hand, so us to form a sort 
of telescope-case ; hold it then to the sun, and apply the eye 
j close to it; if the poult is forming it will be easily dis¬ 
cernible; while, if the egg is bad, there is no dark streak 
visible. This should be done w’hen the sun is at his height. 
The unfruitful eggs should be taken away, and all the nests 
made up full by taking aw r ay fi’om others. By this means 
one nest will be emptied to make up the others, and the 
hen thus robbed can be put on a fi’esh set. 
: When the eggs are hatched, a sunny spot, on grass, should | 
be chosen, the hen should be put in her rip, and a space, 
about three or four feet long by two wide, should be fenced 
in with boards, fastened by pegs ° ■ - o This 
should be covered with netting, and the poults may remain 
in it three or four days, or, if not strong, for a week. Then- 
food curd, chopped egg, a little bi-ead and milk, and a little 
meal mixed with milk. 
They may afterwards be put out with the hen in the same 
way as chickens, but they must be on the gi’ass. They 
must be fed very often, and but little at a time, and con¬ 
stantly supplied with water. A few’ ants’ eggs every day 
assist them much. When the poults come off strong, thp 
little enclosure at first may be dispensed with; but it is a 
great protection to them at first. 
At about six weeks’ old, the hen needs her lip only at 
night; she may be tetliei-ed in a field to a peg. A string, 
a yard long, is fastened to a flat strap of leather ; this has a 
slit cut in it; it is put on the leg of the hen, and the string 
being passed through the opening, it forms a flat strap 
round the leg incapable of inflicting injury, At night, the 
rip is bi-ought, the hen is put under it, her poults join her, 
and it is closed for the night. It involves the necessity of 
very early l-isiug; but it is always safe to shut them in. It 
must not, however, be done unless they can be liberated by ' 
four o'clock. 
Although sun is essential to their growth and well doing, 
yet they need shade and shelter from it in the heat of the 
day. None is so good as long grass ; it is refreshing from 
its coolness at the bottom, and it harbours insects on which 
the poults feed. 
If the space devoted to them be large, I advise that it be 
cut like a draft-board, or like the pattern of a plaid, having 
alternate stripes; one cut close, while on the other the grass 
is allowed to grow as High and as thick as it will. In this 
high gi-ass the poults shelter themselves from heat, and 
rest, and amuse themselves; they also find insect food. 
The parts where the grass grows should be larger than 
those that are mown. In each of these latter places a 
lai-ge plank should be laid on which the food for the young 
should be thrown. 
Feeding-time affords a pretty sight. When you enter the ' 
field there is no appearance of life, save the tethered hens, 
and here and there a straggling poult; but the moment the 
well known call from the man and the hens is heard, the 
high gi-ass is alive from the motion of the poults; they 
come from every quarter of it. 
Their food is still curd, strained in a cloth till quite dry 
and hard, dough made of meal, and given in small pellets, 
and, for a change, a little wheat, and a mixture of chopped 
eggs and bruised wheat and buckwheat. If to be had in 
sufficient quantities, green onion-tops, chopped fine, are also 
good food. Ants’ eggs are always desirable, if to be had. 
They must always have water; but if they have been for¬ 
gotten, and have been without for some time, they must 
have only a little at first, and not ns much as they would 
di-ink. 
Partridges do not requii-ethe same cai - e. We have always 
set a hen on a great many eggs, and when hatched, moved 
them with the hen into a clover field, taking little note of 
them, save to provide them with food and water. They are 
clever little foragers, and, from the first, stray a long way 
from the parent hen. They are little subject to disease, 
soon take to flying, and grow without a check. Cats are 
their greatest enemies. If you would do well with either 
Pheasants or Partridges, the hens must be confined till they 
are no longer required to take care of their broods. 
The food for Partridges and rheasants is the same. 
A PLEA FOR PIGEONS. 
As an ardent admirer of Pigeons, no less than of Poultry, 
I am induced to write a few lines respecting their total, or 
partial, neglect at some of our Poultry Shows. 
At Windsor, for example, there are no classes for these 
birds, hence the atti’action of the Show is greatly lessened; 
and I know of many London amateurs who would have 
entered birds, and been glad to have made up a party to 
visit the exhibition, but who will now refrain from going. 
