The cost of feeding pheasants is a question of some interest at this
season--to those who must foot the bill. The keeper is commonly blamed
for running up too big a bill; a happy medium between his maximum
and his employer's minimum is probably the correct amount of money
required for food. The object of supplying corn to pheasants is not
always understood. It is less to feed the pheasants--for they can
usually exist on natural food, if not very thick on the ground--than
to keep them from straying, by giving them a pleasing and profitable
employment. That keeper makes a mistake and is extravagant who strews
maize on a clean-swept ride. His pheasants in a few minutes will
swallow a cropful and will be free during the rest of the day to seek
and find mischief. They explore foreign woods, and if they like them,
stay away from home. But they may be kept where they should be if
pleasantly engaged in feeding. Straw-corn--such as rough rakings and
damaged sheaves from the tops of ricks which are being threshed--not
only serves to feed pheasants, but forces them to spend the greater
part of their time, which otherwise would be spare time, in searching
for each mouthful. One plan is to tie bundles of straw-corn round the
trunks of trees so that the pheasants must jump to peck the ears. The
empty straw is piled up again and again for the birds to scratch down;
it is only necessary to throw in a little loose grain. Such a miniature
stack will amuse the birds for hours at a time, and helps to keep them
at home.
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