74 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



A field attached to a wood should be avoided ; a 

 wood harbours every species of vermin destructive to 

 young pheasants. 



If you cannot help it, and a wood lies close to the 

 rearing field, it will recompense you to erect a length 

 of rat and weasel proof wire netting along its side, a 

 few yards clear of the hedge. The covert the birds 

 are subsequently to live in when full grown should 

 not, however, be at a distance ; it may be near 

 enough to the rearing field to enable you to gradually 

 shift your coops and birds into it as the latter become 

 strong, and are able to fly, and to roost off the ground 

 at night, and to more or less take care of themselves. 



The position of a rearing field is always a matter 

 for consideration. It will require a road near it for 

 carting food and moving coops, water at hand for 

 preparing the food with, and fuel in the' form of sticks 

 for firing. 



If the field is some distance from a house or 

 shed, a portable shelter, like a shepherd's hut, will be 

 necessary in which to store and mix the food, and as 

 a night and day refuge for the keeper in charge. 



Shun like poison any ground that has a bad 

 reputation in connection with rearing pheasants, or 

 whose history is even traditionally associated with 

 ' gapes.' 



Never rear pheasants more than three seasons 

 in succession on the same ground, however well they 

 turn out. 



