GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 197 



day with pheasant-coops, seldom showing their noses 

 far from the main coverts, an easy prey to mowing- 

 machines, vermin, dogs, and human depredators, 

 who, either from hostility to the owner and his 

 keepers or from greed of gain, make it certain that he 

 cannot realise anything like the number of birds which 

 his property should produce. 



The scope of this work does not admit of my 

 giving every technical detail of the means for rearing, 

 protecting, and preserving game, and, in fact, this 

 has been so well and exhaustively done by others that 

 it would be unnecessary. But whether you dally over 

 the graceful pages of Richard JerTeries, ' The Amateur 

 Poacher,' or search through the mass of practical detail 

 provided by such experienced men as Lord Walsing- 

 ham, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Carnegie, 1 or others, 

 you will find them all agreed upon one point. The 

 farmers and farm labourers must be made your 

 friends, or they will assuredly be your most formidable 

 enemies. 



On the average estate, where the pheasant and 

 partridge shooting are of about equal value, and still 

 more on a property where it is intended to make 

 partridges the principal consideration, I would strongly 



1 Practical Game Preserving, by William Carnegie. 



