The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-07


These birds are taken to the avlaries,
which the keepers, among whom have
! many good friends. insist on calling areas. ;"
These are simply large wooded spaces i'll
the demesne grounds, inclosed by fences
of wire netting, sometimes twelve feet
constantly clipped, or they would es-
cape; but breeders find the labor re-
quired less costly than a wire netting cover
ing for such necessarily large tracts. These
aviaries are provided with mock coverts of
bark and bough, with nesting places and
watering troughs, while some are secured
| against vermin by curved iron bases to the
inclosinR netting charged with electricity
which causes death to all rodents attempting
an entrance.
The pheasants begin laying by April, and
they lay very much like the ordinary hen.
Each hen can be counted on to furnish from
twenty to thirty eggs. These are daily
carefully gathered not only from the nests
I in the avisrieS. but from those Of
I the unimprisoned birds. The latter is
, not difficult task for the keepers, for it is
| singular fact that notwithstanding the
pheasants wild nature they nest most
| freely in shrub clumps along the edges of
walks aud drives. The keepers tell me
they love the sound aud sense Of compan-
ionship. though themselves wonderfully
secretive and sly.
And hece the element of poaching is
| ridiculously observable From April to
June pheasants eggs are worth from gf to
e5 per 100, or from 20 to % cents each. A
regular scramble for them is begun,
and this season provides one Of the
| richest of the poacher's harvests. 1t
is we'll known fact that one
half Of the pheasants' eggs exposed for sale
| at the shopkeepers are stolen. Expert
poachers know every haunt Of the pleas
ants upon the demesnes as well as tho keep
ers. They are often ahead of the latter at
the nests OF the unimprisoned birds Not
only this, but keepers themselves do not
| scruple to surreptitiously dispose Of milords'
supply or help themselves from the nests on
neighboring demesnes.
Last spring l rode to Stourbridge with
| Sir Offley -. Our mission was to secure
fifty dozen pheasantS' eggs, which we &C
complished.
probably one-half of them" he said.
''csme from my grounds. Tho other half
are doubtless from several adjoining prop
critics. Butt he added dryly, 1.-THE poach-
| ing keeps the breeding well crossed -
But the pheasant hen is not a good
mother. Foster mothers must be provided.
Domestic setting hens" are therefore
bought up from the peasantry roundabout
in scores at from Is pence to shilling0
each. The hatchery, always excellently
walled and protected from vermin often
still more extensively than the aviaries
whore the nesting is going on, consists of a
| long series of arched Compartments, with
sliding doors which descend aud close the
hen in tightly, leaving several aperturss
for light and air. TIE hen is removed
| from the nest daily, fed and watered,
often given a run In the wet grass, or her
| breast feathers other wise dampened, to in
sure greater heat to the egg, and carefully
| put back on her own nest, great care being
taken that il Is not fouled or the eggs mis-
| MI nd hat oil warmth ha tod
| At the end of three weeks the pheasant
chicks have Matched. The hen is now placed
in conical, handmade rush or willow coop,
with free ingress 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 cat and corn
meal, sort OF food the chief material of
which Is boiled and dried horse-desn 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 trifle nearer the
| coverts 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 do
| nestle 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 may DO the care in the
| breeding of pheasants, not over one-half of
the chicks come safely to maturity. Then
the preserves are ready for depletion by
poaching in It's various forms. Not only do
the birds suffer in diminution from the pro-
fessonal poacher, but mIlord's pheasants
prove an irresistible temptation to every
tenant and cotter living round about the
demesnes as we'll as TO many whose inter
ests should make them their protectors;
| while on many estates much or the poach-
ing attributed to genuine poachers is done
by the employees themselves.
On great estates from twenty to fifty men
are regularly employed. There are the
"agent" and his clerks. The baliff, who
looks after the home, farm and cattle, has
| his helpers. There are the head forester
and perhaps dozen under foresters, all Of
whose bird and wood craft are quite equal
to those of tho gamekeeper and his several
underkeeper and his several uEderkeepers
| There are master 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,
carpenters, etc. all of whom are familiar
! with the castle and the surrounding
grounds. And on some demesIes you will
ind a half dozen lodgekeepers and
their families. All of these poorly paid
folk love a pheasant after it has come
from the oven, pot or grill as we'll as do
the aristocracy, and they all know how to
get them without bothering the village
marketman.
Professional poaching is q far less dams
gerous pursuit than it is usually considered.
During the shooting season all sorts of
village hangers-on are pressed into service
as 'beaters" and to carry and fill the game
bags. 1t is an easy thing during the ex-
element to hide a generous portion OF
the game at convenient points from
which it is taken under cover of
night Clamor and fright also break up
the rucks or coyeYs into detailed files of
pheasants which retreat as high as possible
among the branches of larch and fir, when
the poaohers can easily take them from
their roosts at night by hand. Other
methods are smudgiug or smoking them
into half insensibility aud knocking them
from their perohes with clubs; corn kernels
into which short bristles are inserted are
greedy deYoured and the birds run choking
to the hedges TO be easily taken by hand;
while an ingenious aud successful device is
to fit a gamecock with artificial spurs, and
stealthiIy place him,alongside a covert, when
the pugnacious pheasant cook instantly
responds to the gameoock's growing chal-
lenge, when three or four brace OF the
valuable birds are easily taken.
Pheasant shooting usually begins the lat
ter part Of October and closes with the final
| Christmas "battue."
| htOh zyalis UanElanagq of