Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14

and his men for cutting posts, repairing
gates and fences. There are painters,
GLACIERS, carpenters, a number of whom are
kept in service, and busy the year round.
The head gardener requires half dozen
assistants. And if guest. your coachman'
call of ''Gatep'-"GateP' will, in a ride
about an ordinary estate, bring to the lodge
gates of different entrances fully hall
dozen bronzed old lodge keepers from out OF
fower-embedded, UNCOVERED lodges.
Every one of these are army pensioners
heroes bold, at their British army pension
and 210 year, whose lives fade out here in
these shadowy hooks among the hares and
pot Of beer day to keep their scattering
useless wits together.
PHEASANT BREEDING.
One of the most interesting occupants of
these great estates is the pheasant 1 have
some good friends among the gamekeepers,
and thus got on close terms with the pheas-
ant. Somebody, an Irishman, perhaps, has
called it "the sacred Ibis of Great Britain. %
1t Is certainly worshiped; and where in the
world else is there so matchlessly beautiful
bird, at the same time so delicious on
leaving the grill, the oven or the pot? Tens
of thousands are sometimes yearly bred in
the great wooded demesnes about the castles,
They are half domesticated. and are fed oats
and corn near their haunts, every one of
which is known to the keepers. In order to
secure the largest possible supply of eggs,
during the last of February the birdA are
"starved" by non-fseding for few days.
Great figure 4" traps are set near their
haunts. Thin trails of oats are scattered be-
tween. They follow these to the traps
ri 49,, = L. dc
of keepers at little distance, any number
desired being thus caught. They are then
taken to the "areas," as the keepers call
them. These are simply great wooded spaces
in the grounds, inclosed by fences of wire
netting, provided with nesting places,
where the birds are we'll watered and
fed daily. They begin laying bv April.
The eggs are carefully daily gathered not
only from the nests in the "areas," but
from those of the unimprisoned birds. The
latter is not a difficult task to the wise
keepers; for it is singular fact that not
withstanding the pheasants' wild nature,
they nest most freely in shrub clumps along
edges of walks and drives. The keepers
tell me they love the sound and sense of
companionship, though themselves wonder
fully secretive and sly. Hundreds OF dozens
of pheasants' eggs are annually sold to
each or e5 per 100.
THE HATCHING PROCESS.
The pheasant, which lays from 20 to 30
eggs each, is not good mother, and "do-
mestic setting hens" are bought up from
the peasantry at 2 shillings each in scores.
The hatchery, always excellentlv walled
and protected, consists of a long series of
arched compartments, with sliding doors
which descend and close in the hen tightly,
leaving several small apertures for light
and air. The hen is removed from the nest
daily, fed and watered, and carefully put
back on her own nest, great care being
taken that it is not fouled, or the eggs mis-
placed, and all vermin are eradicated. At
the end of three weeks the pheasant chicks
have Matched. The hen is now placed in a
conical, handmade rush or willow coop,
with free ingress or egress for the brood,
which is closed in at night and let out at
o'clock every morning. They are fed hard
boiled chopped eggs, mixed with oat and
cornmeal, a sort of food the chief material
of which is boiled and dried horse flesh,
ground biscuit and oyster shells. Several
men are now required for their care, and for
three months the entire collection OF coops
is changed like camp daily to new ground,
and each day trife nearer the cover or
forest. The food is gradually changed to
oats and cracked raw corn. The moment the
young birds show, signs of skulking they
are removed from the domestic hen mothers
and coops to the "areas," and in July they
are set at liberty within the grounds and
forest of the demesne.
Titled crack shots regard pheasant shoot
ing as very great sport. SWhat have seen
of it looks like murder. The death-dealing
guns crack rapidly in the hands of the
L mi
with an hour for lunch of Irish stew and
beer at 2, when the ''beaters" are furnished
liberal amount of bread, cheese and beer;
and their assistants, who follow the hunters
with carts and donkeys, by night have often
gathered up l, ,0OO'slaughtered birds. These
are shipped direct to London to dealers who
provide hampers and tags, and pay the
lordly murderers from to 6 shillings per
brace. From 10000 to $4,000 pheasants
from one Irish estate thus frequently reach
the London market. s.
EDGAR L, WAKEMAN,