xii. PHEASANT SHOOTING (PART III] 191 



wood, form an artificial shelter to hold the pheasants 

 previous to their being bustled out over the guns. 

 Dead branches strewn loosely on the ground, and old 

 tops of trees 4 ft. or 5 ft. high, embedded upright in the 

 soil, will last for years. Such shelter should, however, 

 never be so thickly formed that the birds have any 

 difficulty in rising clear of it or of running into it. 



It is also advisable to feed your pheasants in 

 those parts of a covert from which they are usually 

 driven out over the guns. The birds will then, from 

 knowing the locality well, run to such on being 

 alarmed by the beaters. 



A naturally grown corner for pheasants to rise 

 from is, of course, the best of all, and can be formed 

 in three or four years, by planting rhododendrons, 

 laurels, privet, holly, and spruce the latter being 

 topped to prevent its growing high, and to encourage 

 it to take a spreading form. Even willows, reeds or 

 long grass, will do at a pinch, if you can plant nothing 

 better. All you want is some cover to hold your 

 birds, and thus check them from trooping up to the 

 end of a wood, and rising in a cluster over the guns 

 posted in the open. 



In woods bare of undergrowth, artificial shelter 

 for holding pheasants is invaluable. A few cartloads 

 of hedge clippings, that would be burnt as useless by 

 the farmers, are of great value to a keeper, if he places 

 them judiciously at bare spots in his coverts, and 

 especially near those points at which his pheasants 



