"They be a good lot of eggs," the keeper will inform you as he reveals
his store, ready to be given to the quickening warmth of broody fowls.
"I don't know as ever I set eyes on better," he will add, "and I don't
expect you have neither." If you denied this he would not believe
you. His pheasants' eggs are like the apple blossoms: each year more
beautiful than ever. And the more plentiful the more beautiful.
Noting the keeper, as he goes out in search of broody hens, you might
mistake him for a dealer in rags and bones. He tramps all round the
countryside with an old sack slung over his back--one of the light,
thin kind in which dog-biscuits come; or sometimes he drives in a gig,
and poultry-farmers welcome him gladly. He pays half a crown or three
shillings for each hen in broody mood, and so helps to make poultry
pay. His difficulty is to find broody hens at the time when he most
needs them. The ideal is a healthy bird, not one with pallid comb or
inclined to mope; she must be of medium size and of light weight, with
short legs, small feet, and a wealth of downy feathers. Above all, she
must be quiet in demeanour. The fidgety, fussy hen may have excellent
intentions, but is likely to cause disaster to her eggs and chicks. A
big hen with the sprawliest feet, but of gentle disposition, and slow
to anger, will often prove a better foster-mother than one a model in
form, feather, and feet, but in temperament a spitfire.
* * * * *