io8 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



them as youngsters, they will, when full grown, fly 

 thereto for refuge when rough weather sets in, or 

 when the crops are cut and the grass and cover is 

 short in the fields. 



They will also return to the woods for corn 

 supplied by hand as their natural food becomes scarce 

 in the open. 



Feed well and early up to the very day the birds 

 are shot. Feed shortly after daybreak, on no account 

 the night before, as laziness might suggest. The 

 fresh food should be thrown on the ground for the 

 birds just as they fly down from the trees they roosted 

 in, or they are sure to walk off in search of it at a 

 distance.* Feed twice a day, sprinkling the food 

 broadcast on ground clear of undergrowth, or along 

 rides or paths. 



In due [course the young pheasants will stray 

 in all directions and require continual attention in 

 driving home, and many of them will pass their time 

 amid any standing crops in which they find food and 

 shelter. 



Kecollect pheasants invariably stray towards the 

 rising sun the first thing in the morning, and towards 



* There is such a thing as feeding too early ; for instance, never 

 disturb the pheasants in a wood before they have come down from 

 their perches ; if you frighten the birds out of the trees they roost in 

 you may drive them to sleep in other and perhaps less safe quarters. 

 The time to feed full-grown pheasants is just in the quarter hour 

 after they have dropped from their roosting trees, and before they 

 commence to search for a breakfast on their own account. 



