14 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



adapts itself readily to very different conditions as regards 

 covert, although it prefers some kinds of plantations to others. 

 On many estates, where the woods consist mainly of hard- 

 woods, or deciduous species, there are plenty of pheasants, and 

 the birds do well en&ugh in summer ; but such woods are 

 usually over-thinned, and the trees being destitute of foliage 

 from November till April they are the coldest in winter, being 

 open to both winds and frost, and pheasants will forsake such 

 woods in winter for more sheltered coverts, if such are to be 

 found, or they will crowd into the warmest corners if they have 

 no choice. They will forsake an open hard-wood plantation 

 for a dense spruce or fir wood, if they have the chance, at 

 almost any season, and the greatest number of truly wild 

 pheasants we ever saw on any one estate was on one where the 

 woods consisted of pure spruce or deciduous trees mixed with 

 spruce. Keepers argue that in fir woods kept dense and close 

 the tree trunks get bare under the branches, which is true, but 

 even such woods pheasants prefer to naked hard-wood planta- 

 tions. For years we have noted the partiality of pheasants for 

 such woods because they were warm, the dense evergreen 

 canopy overhead preventing radiation, and the crowded stems 

 breaking the wind however hard it might blow. The wind 

 blows through a thin, leafless hard-wood plantation like 

 through a sieve, and even when dense, though then warmer, 

 the hard-wood plantation is still the coldest. What we wish to 

 make clear here more particularly, however, is that dense 

 woods, cropped with an eye to timber, are not only just as 

 suitable for game as thinly cropped, profitless woods, but that 

 even if they were not so they can be laid out and planted so as to 

 obviate any objections on that head, and can also be furnished 

 with underwood of a suitable kind that will grow. Let it be 

 borne in mind that the pheasant prefers the wood only for 

 shelter and breeding purposes, and the quieter the woods are 

 the better. It does not live in the woods continuously, but 

 prefers the rides, margins of the wood, and the open fields as a 

 feeding ground, where it also gets the sunshine. Sunny 

 margins are invariably preferred, and if birds are flushed any- 

 where in cold wintry weather it will be in such spots, or under 

 or near to holly trees and other evergreens where there is 

 shelter and warmth. 



A point, the importance of which will be admitted by all 

 sportsmen, is that nothing more promotes the successful raising 

 of a good head of game than keeping woods and coverts 

 quiet and free from intrusion. For this reason, on some 



