256 PHEASANTS 



the ground is able to support under natural 

 conditions must in any event be a costly- 

 business, and that the results would surely 

 warrant any increase in expenditure, for 

 partridge driving is by far the most 

 popular sport with the gun in the low 

 country, and few would be content to see 

 their pheasants thrive at the expense of 

 the partridges. 



The writer would be slow to believe 

 that this method has not been adopted on 

 individual estates where sound principles 

 govern the general management : but 

 these must be rare exceptions, for 

 although he has often discussed it in 

 theory with keepers and their masters, he 

 has never had the fortune to meet with it 

 in practice. 



Even where the demands of the 

 shooting are not so heavy, and the number 

 of pheasants in the coverts conform more 

 nearly to the capacity of the ground, great 

 care should still be exercised to keep them 

 within bounds. The worst offenders are 

 the pheasant hens whose first lot of eggs 



