The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-08-06

ally provided with dry straw or leaSest
and 10 keep their drinking wells or
water troughs open and clear OF refuse.
aud that they nro well fcl with oats and
corn. On some estates during October
and November O certain number are
caught, taken to tho aviary Of pleas.
antry, their wings regularly clipped
oyery two or three weeks, and they are
thus kept and fed during tho winter to
provide tho required egg supply during
tic spring months, the Scarcity OF eggs
being one Of the most serious drawbacks
in pheasant breeding. $780,.
Usually, however. the old birds are
not taken up until the last OF Feb ru.
airy. Then they arc systematically
starved" by non.feeding for about q
week, when largo figure 4" traps are
set near thor haunts. Then trails OF
oats are scattered between. The pleas
ants readily follow these to the traps,
which are sprung by strings In the
hands Of the keepers, any desired num-
Der being thus easily secured.
These birds are taken to the avlaries.
which the keepers, among whom | have
many good friends, insist on calling
"areas." These are simply large wood
edspaccs in the demesne grounds, e
closed BY fences OF wire netting, some.
times twelve feet high. The wings OF
the birds are constantly clipped or they
would escape; but breeders And tho la
Dor required less costly thana wire net
ting covering for such necessarily large
tracts. These aviaries are provided
with mock coverts OF bark and bough,
with nesting places and Watering
trouehs, while some are secured against
vermin by curved iron bases to the en-
closing netting charged with electricity,
which causes death to all rodents at
tempting an entrance.
The pheasants begin laying By April,
and then lay much like the ordinary
hen. Each eau be counted on to fur
nish from 90 to 80 eggs. These are dali
ly carefully gathered not only from the
nests in the aviaries, but from those OF
the imprisoned birds. Tho latter is
not q difficult task for the keepers; for
it is a singular fact that notwithstand-
ing the phensants' 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 them
selvos wonderfully s~ecretive and sly.
And here the element OF noaching is
ridiculously observable. From April to
June p%heasants, eggs arc worth from 81
to &5 per hundred, OF from twenty to
twenty-five cents each. A regular
scramble for them issbegun, and this
season provides one Of the richest of
tho poacher's harvests. It is q we'll
known fact that one half ot.the pleas
ants eggs exposed for sale at the shop
keepers are stolen. Expert poachers
know every hunt Of tho p%heasants
upon the demesnes as well as the keep
ers. They are often ahead OF the latter
at the nests of the untnprisioned birds.
Not only this, but keepers themselves
do not scruple to surreptitiously dis
pose Of milords' supply, or help them
selves from the nests on neighboring
demesnes.
Last spring / rode tostourbridge with
Sir Ohley -. Our mission was to Sc
cure fifty dozen pheasants' eggs, which
we .accomplished!
Probably one half of them, . he said,
s'came from my grounds. The other
half are doubtless from several adjoin-
ing properties. But" he had dryly.
"the poaching keeps the breed we'll
crossedl"
But the pheasant hen is not a good
mother. Foster mothers must be pro-
vided. Domestic Setting hens" are
therefore brought 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 yermin often still more ex-
pensively than the aviaries where the
nesting is going on, consists of n long
series OF arched compartments, withslid-
ing doors, which descend and close the
hen in,tightly, leaving several a%pertures
for light and air. The hen Is removed
from the nest daily, fed and watered,
oftengivena run in the wet grass, orher
breast feathers otherwise dampened, to
insure greater heat to the eggs, and care
fully put back on her own nest, great
care being taken that il is not or fouled,
the eggs misplaced, and that all vermin
be eradicated. At the end OF three
weeks the pheasantchicks havehatched.
The hen is now placed in a'conical,
hand made rush or willow coop, with
free ingress and egress for the brood,
which is closed in at night and let out
at A o'clock every morning. They are
fed hard boiled chopped eggs, mixed
with oats and cornmeal, a sort OF food
the chief material Of which is boiled
and dried horselesh, and ground bis
cult and oyster shells. Several men are
now required for their care, and for
three months the entire collection OF
coops is changed daily like q camp to
new ground, andeach day q triae nearer
the coverts or forest. The food is grad
ually changed to oats and cracked raw
corn; the moment the young birds
show signs of skulking they are re-
moved from the domestic hen mothers
and coops to the aviaries, and in July
they are set at liberty. within the
grounds and forest OF the demesne.
However great maybe the care in the
breeding OF pheasants, not over n
half OF the chicks come safely to matur-
ity. Then the preserves are ready for
depletion by ~poaching in Its various
forms. Not only do the birds suffer in
dimlnution from the professional poach-
or, but miiord's pheasants prove an ir-
resistable temptation to every tenant
and cotter living round about the de.
mcsnea as vol as to many whose inter
ests should make thentheir protectors;
while on many estates much Of the
poaching attributed to genuine poach-
ers is done by the employees themselves.
On great estates from twenty to nifty