The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-06

SoSdpSs Oub pTe6OSTS Inu the LABOR re-
qulred less costly than wire netting
covering for such necessarily large tracts.
These aviaries are provided with mock
ceverts OF bark and bough, with nesting
places and watering troughs. while some
are secured against vermin by curved
iron bases to the encasing netting
charged with electricity which causes
death to all rodents attempting an en-
trance.
The pheasants begin laying by April,
and they lay very much like the ordinary
men. Each can be counted on to furnish
from twenty to thirty eggs. These are
daily carefully gathered, not only from
the nests in the ayiaries, but from those
OF the unimprisoned birds. The latter is
not difficult task for the keepers; for il
IS singular fact that Notwithstanding
the pheasants' wild nature they nest
most freely in shrub clumps along the
edges of walks and drives. The keepers
tell me they love the sound and sense of
companionship, though themselves won
derfully secretive and sly.
And here the element Of poaching is
rldiculously observable. From April to
June pheasants' eggs are worth from 81
to 45 per hundred, or from twenty
to twenty-five cents each. A reg
ular scramble for them is begun, and this
season provides one of the richest of the
poachers' harvests. 1t is well-known
fact that one-half of the pheasants' eggs
exposed for sale at the shopk eepers are
stolen. Expert poachers know every
haunt OF the DheaSantS upon the demesnes
as well as the keepers. They are often
ahead of the latter at the nestssof the I'M
imprisoned birds. Not only this, but
Keepers themselves do not scruple to sur
reptitiously dispose Of miIords' supply,
or help themselves from the nests on
nelghboring demesnes.
Last spring [ rode to Stourbridge with
Sir Otltey -. Our mission was to Sc
cure fifty dozen pheasants' eggs, which
we accomplished.
Probably onehalf of Them" he said,
came from my grounds. The other half
are doubtless from several adjoining
properties. But" he added. dryIy, "the
poaching keeps the breed well crossed ~
But the pheasant hen is not a good
mother. Foster mothers must be pro-
yided. Domestic setting hens'' are
therefore bought up from the peasantry
roundabout in scores at from eighteen
pence to two shillings each. The hatch
cry, always eXcellently walled and pro-
tected from vermin, often still more ex-
penslvely than the aviaries where the
nesting is going on, consists of long
series OF arched compartments, with slid
ing doors which descend and close the
hen IN tightly, leaving several apertures
for. light and air. The hen is removed
from the nest daily, fed and watered
often given run in the wet grass, or her
breast feathers otherwise dampened. to
insure greater heat to the eggs, and care
lully put back on her own nest, great
care being taken that it is not fouled or
the eggs misplaced, and that all vermin
be eradicated. At the end of three weeks
the pheasant chicks have Matched. The
hen Is now placed in conical, hand
mace rush or willow coop, with free in
gress and egress for the brood, which is
closed in at night and let out at 4 O'Clock
every morning. They are fed hard-boiled
chopped eggs, mixed with Oat and corn
meal. sort Of food the chief material of
which is boiled and dried horse-fiesh and
ground biscuit and oyster shells. Several
men are now required for their care, and
for three months the entire collection of
coops is changed daily, like a camp. to
new ground, and each day trifie nearer.
The coverts or forests. The food is gradu-
ally 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 GOODS to
the aVlaries, and in July they are set at
liberty within the grounds and forest of
the demesne.
However great may be the care in the
breeding OF pheasants, not over one-half
OF the chicks come safely to maturity,
Then the preserves are ready for depie-
tlon by poachlng in its various forms.
Not only do the birds suffer in diminu-
tlon from the professional poacher, but
mllord's pheasants prove an irresistible
temptation to every tenant and cotter liy-
ing round about the demesnes as well as
TO many whose interests should make
them their protectors, while on many es-
tates much Of the poaching attributed to
genuine poachers is done by the en-
ployes themselves.
On great estates from 20 to so men are
regularly employed. There are the
agent and his clerks. The bailiff, who
looks alter the home farm and cattle, has
his helpers. There are the head forester
and perhaps dozen under toresters, all
OF whose bird and wood craft are quite
equal TO those of the gamekeeper and his
several underkeepers. There are mas
ter sawyer and three or four men engaged
in cutting timber and posts from forest
trees and repairing gates, walls and
fences. The head gardener has several
assistants. There are painters, GLACIERS,
etc., all of whom are familiar
with the castle and the surrounding
grounds. And on some demesnes YOU
Will lind half-doZen lodge-keeDers and
their families. All of these poorly paid
folk love pheasant after it has come
from the oven, pot or grill as well as do
the aristocracy, and they all know how to
Professional poaching is a far less dan
gerous pursuit than it is usually consid-
cred. During the shooting season all
sorts OF village hangers-on are pressed
into service as heaters" and to carry
and ill the game bags. 1t is an easy
thing during theexcitement to hide gem
erous portion of the game at convenient
points from which it is taken under cover
orb lor Il
up the rucks or coyeys into detached
tiles OF pheasants which retreat as high
as possible among the branches of larch
and hr, when the poacherS can easily
take them from their roosts at night by
hand. Other methods are smudging or
them into half insensibility
and Knocking them from their perches
with clubs; corn kernels into which short
brlStles are inserted are greediIy de-
voured and the birds run choking to the
hedges to be easily taken by hand; while
an ingenious and successful device is to
ut galne-cock with artificial spurs, and
stealthily place him alongside covert,
when the pugnacious pheasant cock in
stantly responds to the game-cock S crow
ing challenge, when three or four brace
OF the valuable birds are easily taken.
Pheasant shooting usually begins the
latter part of October and closes with the
final Christmas ''battue"
Notwithstanding high walls, gentleness
OF Keepers and all possible preventives,
many pheasants leave the demesnes.
seeking the outer hedges and bog grasses
where they fall a prey to the snares of
tenants and guns of the poachers. There
fore few days before pheasant shooting
begins all the outside help at the castle
starts in circle miles from the demesne
and concentrating toward the same.
shout ana beat, with terrific hula
the preserves. Then Milford and his
friends, dressed as for snipe shooting on
the moors, and provided each with two
double-barreled, breech- loading, center