34 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



broods after you have taken their first nests, than if 

 you allowed, as is not unusual, eight or nine hens to 

 each cock. 



In the event of a large surplus of cock birds, 

 which occurs in some seasons more than in others, 

 shoot a few down in the outside woods early in the 

 season with three or four good shots before you have 

 your regular covert shooting. 



If you shoot cocks and hens together the first 

 time through your woods in ' a cock year,' and the 

 cocks by themselves, as is the custom, later on, you 

 will probably find you are just the number short of 

 these wily old soldiers at the end of the season that, 

 had you given them battle at its beginning, you would 

 have had in hand. 



It should be the practice on every game estate to 

 keep a separate list of the cock and hen pheasants 

 killed, so as to form an idea of the proportion of 

 sexes bagged and left as a stock; also to carefully 

 note, when shooting, the approximate number of hens 

 that escape the gun. The cocks can be counted as they 

 go up to roost, and should be ruthlessly killed on every 

 occasion up to February 1, if they are too numerous. 



Too many cocks in a wild state (as, for instance, 

 one to three or four hens) means that a constant 

 warfare rages among them in the spring for the 

 possession of the hens, if the latter are not sufficient 

 in number to supply each of these long-tailed Turks 

 with what he considers his quantum of wives. 



