PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



Broom, Bramble, the Rhododendron as well as the Hazel, Laurel 

 and Privet, as Pheasants dehght in the dense cover afforded by 

 low-growing and traiUng perennials, besides most of the shrubs 

 last named, as well as the seeds of the Dog Rose. All afford 

 capital food for Pheasants. In some coverts the Gorse or 

 Whin is used, but this is not as useful as the Broom (Cysticus), 

 and the latter should always predominate. 



Most game-keepers and others interested in the construc- 

 tion of a covert will, I think, agree with the author, that 

 the best of all trees to plant are : Spruce Firs, Silver Firs 

 and Scotch Firs. These ^should be planted moderately 

 close, which prevents excessive branch formation. For 

 Spruce Firs, a distance of 4 yards, but not more than 

 5 yards apart, is the most desirable. The seedlings of the 

 Silver Fir require protection against early frosts and also 

 against drought in summer. 



Morris, in his work on British Game Birds and 

 Wild Fowl, has the following paragraph, concerning the 

 favourite resorts of the Pheasant, and which has a direct 

 bearing upon the formation of a covert. The author re- 

 ferred to says : 



" The most favourite resort of the Pheasant is the thick, 

 brushy underwood, composed of small shrubs. Bramble 

 bushes, long coarse grass, and other wild plants, which is 

 often met with through the whole of small woods and 

 coppices, and in the outskirts of larger woods, or where 

 woods have been cut down, and the brushwood allowed to 

 grow as it would. 



" In such situations as the above the Pheasant remains 

 quiet and concealed during the daytime, but at sunset and 

 sunrise it leaves this seclusion for the more open feeding 

 grodnd ; it is singular that on these occasions it never 



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