194 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



abundant as you expected during a day's shooting on 

 other portions of the estate, you always have ' some- 

 thing in your pocket ' to fall back upon. 



A retreat such as this, though merely a few acres 

 in extent, will, from its quiet, attract your birds as 

 they are disturbed outside its boundary. Do not feed 

 in your sanctum, lest you should draw the pheasants 

 to it from the other coverts in too large numbers. 

 Merely leave it undisturbed by man or gun when the 

 woods near it are shot through the first time in the 

 season, and you will have it as a bonne louche when 

 you attack it later on, or when you wish to kill the 

 cock pheasants down. ____ 



Never muddle a large wood up by driving it in 

 several beats, one beat alongside the other, if you can 

 in any way avoid doing this. The effect of tramping 

 a large wood out in strips is generally a failure, as, 

 even with the use of nets, the game will be continually 

 running and dodging about right and left of the 

 beaters, either to the part of the wood not yet beaten 

 or back to the portion that has been driven. It is far 

 better to sweep a large wood straight out to its end, 

 with a thin line of men, in one or at most a couple of 

 beats, two or three times over, than that a close line 

 should drive it to the guns in small beats at a time. 

 The former process will show the game better, as the 

 birds will fly forward sooner or later, whilst, with the 

 small-beat-at-a-time system, when the last drive is 



