i\. PHEASANT REARING (PART VIII) 139 



in. The reason is, that in fir woods there is little for 

 pheasants to pick up ; and as bramble grass and 

 undercover does not grow beneath larch and spruce like 

 under hard wood trees, the birds are sure to roam in 

 the fields in search of seeds and insects more than 

 they will if the woods are composed in part, at all 

 events, of oak, beech, elm, ash, or birch. 



Undercover is very necessary to shelter ground 

 and winged game at all times, and its presence will 

 not only hide pheasants from cats and foxes, and keep 

 them from straying, but will also check the birds from 

 running out or rising together at the end of a covert 

 when it is driven to the guns. 



If an estate is in a game-preserving district, 

 though you will lose, as always occurs, a proportion of 

 your birds over its boundary, your neighbours will 

 involuntarily do the same, and thus matters are 

 equalised, for exchange is no robbery ; but should the 

 land adjoining you be unpreserved, it is good bye to 

 all birds that cross the border there will be no 

 exchange then, only robbery.* 



* There is one thing a keeper will not do : he will never admit 

 that any of his birds which stray to a neighbour's land ever return, 

 however well preserved the adjoining estate may be. The fact is, a 



