THE GOAL — WEAL COVERTS 



595 



Another favorite feeding spot throughout the fall and early winter is the cut-over land or 

 slashing. Small slashings scattered throughout the interior of a covert, especially if bor- 

 dered by conifers on at least one side, provide a likely place in which to find birds when 

 they are not feeding in the overgrown lands. 



It is desirable also to have the covert bisected or at least deeply indented with one or 

 more narrow openings across which some birds are likely to fly when flushed from the adja- 

 cent cover. 



Favorite hunting coverts usually provide these conditions in abundance. But there are also 

 other considerations. Thick cover seldom adds to the enjoyment of the hunt, nor do steep 

 slopes. For the former reason, slightly grazed woods and overgrown lands often furnish 

 the best hunting possibilities. Dense, extensive blocks of conifers or large tracts of hard- 

 woods without evergreens are equally undesirable. Here the cover is either too thick to shoot 

 or too poor to attract many birds. 



For hunting, an ideal "edge" in New York State may be made up of clumps of trees and 

 shrubs, including thornapples, apjiles, viburnums, dogwoods, cherry and evergreens growing 

 in a relatively open setting though immediately adjacent to a rather open mixed woodland. 

 Here a dog works well, and the birds, once flushed and heading for the woods, usually must 

 cross one or two small openings, thus providing superlatively good shooting opportunities. 



The size of the cover types that make up a covert is also imjiortant. in that extensive areas 

 of overgrown land or of mixed hardwoods and conifers tend to scatter the birds more and 

 to make them diflTicult to follow once flushed. 



These jxiiiils are illustrated in figure 62 where the cover has been so organized as to pro- 

 vide not only excellent conditiims for grouse but for the hunter as well. 



SCALE I •660 



LEGEND 



: OVERGROWN 

 FIELDS 



.'■K"-i SECOND-OROWTHHjgn HARDWOODS 



a!]^ HARDWOODS B^liU AND CONIFERS lllll:! CONIFERS 



77Z\ SMALL 

 cZZA SLASHI 



FIGURE 62. ONE OF MANY POSSIBLE ARRANGEMENTS OF COVER TYPES WITHIN A COVERT WHICH 

 SHOULD PROVIDE EXCEPTIONAL CONDITIONS FOR BOTH BIRD AND HUNTER 



