156 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



the same hour in the early morning ; that is the great 

 secret of keeping your birds at home, and is worth all 

 the dainties you can invent to tickle their palates. 



If a keeper is half an hour late in feeding a 

 covert, his birds will not come up as usual. Why ? 

 Simply because, as they did not receive their break- 

 fast when they expected it, they strayed away to look 

 for it elsewhere ; and, what is more, this habit will 

 grow worse daily if the birds are not fed punctually, 

 and many of them will never return to feed when they 

 have once enjoyed the delights of roaming the open 

 fields. 



Another thing, if pheasants do not show at feeding 

 time, as they should do, a keeper has no means of 

 telling what number he has in his charge, or how 

 many birds are missing ! 



Besides their regular allowance of Indian corn, 

 we require to put down something to amuse pheasants, 

 and to keep them in the coverts by day. Bakings 

 from barley fields and chaff from the threshing yard, 

 laid in the form of a patch 6 yds. to 8 yds. across and 

 some 6 in. deep, in an open spot in a wood, will occupy 

 your birds by the hour in scratching for seeds and 

 dusting, and yet will not satisfy their appetites so as 

 to hinder them from attending to their usual morning 

 feed. 



