1Q2 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



are apt to steal out when the woods are being driven. 

 If the birds obtain some places of concealment in a 

 covert, they may lie till driven over the guns, whereas, 

 if they have no chance of hiding from view, they will 

 run half a mile in front of the beaters. Commence 

 the formation of rising corners and any planting or 

 thinning of trees directly the current game season 

 closes, so as to be in good time for the ensuing one; 

 you will thus year by year gradually bring your 

 coverts into good order for holding and showing 

 game. 



SOME FINAL AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS IN COVERT 

 SHOOTING 



When driving your coverts for pheasants, benefit 

 by experience ; never beat a covert one particular 

 way year after year because your father did so before 

 you. Try all ways. Note the corner the birds broke 

 out of last season, and avoid driving your pheasants 

 into it the next. Bear in your mind the exact spots 

 from which the birds flew high the previous year, 

 perhaps by mere chance, and take care that plenty of 

 them have an opportunity of doing so by method in 

 future. Guard the points at which the birds have 

 been wont to run out to the fields by placing men as 

 ' stops ; ' or, better still, drive the birds away from 

 such risky points to a safer or more central position, 

 or post a gun (the best ' stop ' of all) to check their 



