190 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



To count pheasants when laid on the ground after 

 being killed at the end of a covert pull every tenth 

 one out of the line, so that its head and neck project 

 beyond its fellows. The birds can then be re-counted 

 in a few seconds if necessary, and you are not so 

 likely to see the absurd sight of two men telling up a 

 row of a hundred birds from opposite ends, and one 

 swearing to 99 and the other to 101 as the correct 

 total. 



ON MAKING RISING CORNERS 



If you are fortunate in having plenty of under- 

 growth in a wood, your pheasants will not be so 

 liable to run forward from the beaters, to collect at 

 its extremity, and then rise in a bunch over the guns 

 standing forward which generally means very fast 

 firing for a few minutes, but a small proportion of 

 birds killed as compared with the numbers driven to 

 the shooters. 



From want of a proper thinning of the trees, many 

 coverts are bare of undergrowth and brambles ; for 

 such will not flourish without light, or under thick 

 foliage. If you require undergrowth, you cannot 

 induce it to grow without letting in air and sun. To 

 do this, fell a few trees in groups here and there, so 

 as to leave round spaces of some twenty to thirty 

 yards across that are unshadowed by branches. 



If necessary, as is often the case at the point of a 



