any small animal. If there is any difficulty about this, the liver of a horse or cow answers remarkably well. With a knife cut some deep gashes in the substance of the liver or flesh, and hang it up in a shady place, but near the haunts of the blow-fly. Where a large number of pheasants are reared an outhouse is specially provided, the incursions of sparrows being prevented by wire-work or netting. In a few days the maggots will attain a lively state of existence; but they require about a week to reach their full development to the green or soft state, and another week to reach their maturity, when they are large and fat, with black heads. Blow-flies are abroad after the beginning of May. The scouring of these gentles is effected by placing them for a few days in a mixture of bran and fine sand, slightly damp. By this process they are emptied of their contents, and rendered tough in their skins; in which state they will not purge the young birds. When the object is to preserve them for many days, they must be kept in a very cool place, such as a cellar, or they even should be buried in the earth. Without attention to this precaution they are almost sure to assume the chrysalis condition, in which stage they are useless for feeding. A low temperature, and the exclusion of air and light retard this development; but in most cases the young birds will require the gentles as fast as they are sufficiently scoured. The curds used are those to be obtained at any dairy.

As soon as the young birds are strong enough, which will be at the end of a few days, or perhaps a week, from the hatching, they will require a run on grass. For this select a dry field, with a south-western aspect if possible, but carefully avoiding such as are exposed to the east or north. A slope to the sun is generally preferred, as it allows the rain to run off as fast as it falls; but it is well to provide against the flooding of the coops by digging a trench above them to carry off the water sideways. The young birds are extremely fond of high grass, which not only shelters them from the sun and from hawks, but allows them to find insects, so that it is well to leave parts of the field uncut. Broad paths must, however, be mown through it for the coops or rips, and on them, at intervals, the latter are placed, re

moving the bottom, and turning the sloping back towards the sun so as to give the hen shade. At first, till they are settled in their new abode, the birds are to be confined in the pen, but on the second day the flap (e, fig. 94) may be let quietly down, and the young birds will then gradually find their way out and wander among the grass. The call of the hen soon brings them back; and they should always be fed in the small run of the pen, where, also, spring water should be constantly kept, and changed regularly three times a day -it is a good plan to boil it. The flap of the run is shut at night, which keeps out rats and stoats; but the young birds must be let out at sunrise, when they should have their first feed. Every day the coop should be shifted to fresh ground, so as to avoid keeping them on that which has been stained. A shallow box of dust should be provided and moved near the pens to allow of the young birds dusting themselves, and this is more especially necessary with partridges. After the birds are six weeks old the food is gradually changed to barley, buckwheat, or split Indian corn.

KEEPING TAME PHEASANTS.

As the young birds grow to full size and are able to fly, they may either be removed to large pens, covered with netting if they are to be turned out, or they may have the feathers of one of their wings cut, and will then be easily kept in by hurdles without covering overhead. Pheasants do not require shelter of any sort beyond that which will be afforded by light faggots, or other similar materials. The hurdles should be made of split spruce laths for perpendiculars, while the horizontal rails must be of rough oak; they should be about seven feet high, and should each have a strong slanting prop fixed to the middle rail (fig. 95), by which they may be supported while they are being fixed to one another, after which the whole square is perfectly firm. Each hurdle may be made ten or twelve feet long, and four of these being arranged at right angles, and their corners tied securely tegether, leave a square within them of sufficient area for one lot of birds consisting of a cock and from three to five hens. A larger quantity should not be put together for breeding; and it is better to add three more hurdles to one

of the sides for a second pen, than to place more than six adult birds in a larger one. These pens should be moved to

fresh ground every month, except during the laying season; and for this purpose a door should be made in one out of each four, which will also admit the keeper at all times to the interior. When, therefore, the pen is first put up, take care and place the door on that side where the removal is to be effected, and then by fixing three other hurdles to that side, another pen is completed, and the keeper, opening the door between the old and the new, enters the former and gently drives the birds into the latter, shuts the door, and takes down the three hurdles which were used for the first

pen, and are now no longer wanted. When the square is completed a strong rail is tied to four props across the middle space, and over this faggots, or loose brushwood are arranged so as to leave a run underneath, when the birds are secure from interference. If the birds are to have their wings cut no net is necessary, but if not a common net is fixed over the top, and in that way the birds are confined.

When the feathers of the wings are to be cut, the birds must be caught; and for this purpose a net, something like a landing net for fish, is to be employed, but larger. A strong

oval ring of iron wire is attached to a pole, six or seven feet long, and a loose bag net fastened to it all round. Armed with this, the keeper enters the pen, and readily places the net over the pheasant, which may then be laid hold of in the usual way. All the strong wing feathers must be cut close to the flesh, and this must be repeated during the moulting, or they will grow long enough to allow of the birds flying over the hurdles. Pulling the feathers out should never be practised, because they do not grow again as strongly as before.

The best food for adult pheasants and partridges in confinement is barley, wheat, split Indian corn, rice, and buckwheat-each of them being used for a term, and then changed for another. Green food-such as cabbage, turnips, and turnip tops, lettuce or mangold wurtzel, should also be supplied for them to peck at; and some kind of animal food must occasionally be given to supply the place of the insects which would be taken if the birds were at liberty. Chopped beef or horseflesh is the best, unless the bones with a little meat on them can be put down; for the birds like to peck the flesh off them by degrees, and not to be gorged with it in large quantities at a time. Flesh maggots answer still better; but they can only be supplied during the summer season. Earth worms, when they can be procured, are excellent at all times. Plenty of dust, with a fair proportion of sand and lime, should always be within reach of partridges and pheasants.

The diseases to which these birds are subject during their rearing are chiefly diarrhoea, the gapes, and cramp. Diarrhoea may be relieved by giving rice boiled in alum water, adding a few grains of black pepper, if the birds are much exhausted by it. The gapes is one of the most troublesome of the diseases to which these birds are subject; it is caused by a parasitic worm in the windpipe, which is several weeks growing to its full size, gradually causing suffocation by filling up the air-passage. Nothing does any good but the dislodgement of the worm, and this may be effected by means of a feather dipped in equal parts of olive oil and spirit of turpentine, which is then passed down the windpipe in front of the throat, and not into the gullet, which is behind. Some

skill is required for this, and where it is not acquired, fumigation with the vapour of spirit of turpentine will succeed nearly as well. This is done as follows:-A box containing two compartments (fig. 96) is framed of wood;

one of these is large enough to contain the pheasant, and has a door, provided with a loaded valve c, which opens and shuts in unison with another valve d by means of a rod between them; h allows of the escape of the vapour, which enters through the opening below c. In the other chamber is a spirit lamp a, a saucer containing the spirit of turpentine b, placed upon a wire gauze partition, so that the vapour from it shall not be lighted by the flame of the lamp; e is a small pulley, round which a cord passes from the upper valve d, to the hand of the operator, who is stationed at f, where he can watch the bird, and at the same time cause it to keep its head towards the opening where the vapour enters; g is an opening for the entrance of a current of air to pass with the vapour into the second chamber. When the pheasant is to be operated on, it is first placed in the box, the lamp is then set going, and the cord pulled tight, by which the vapour is compelled to enter beneath the valve c, and this is continued until the