8 Practical Game Preserving. 



The best coverts are those of young trees, where spruce, 

 larch, fir, oak, and ash are well commingled, the spruce 

 having the advantage if possible in point of numbers ; and 

 beneath these a fairly abundant undergrowth of hazel, holly 

 and other evergreen shrubs such as laurel. Together with 

 the ubiquitous bramble and bracken, these trees would 

 present a shelter alluring to and liked by the birds. We 

 purpose later on, however, to devote a chapter to the 

 improvement and general management of pheasant coverts, 

 and therefore must leave this part of the matter for the 

 present. The introduction of pheasants upon land hitherto 

 destitute alike either of game birds or of any form of pre- 

 serving is a task which is generally difficult and nearly 

 always expensive. There is no getting away from the fact 

 that a stock of pheasants means laying out money, all the 

 much vaunted statements of some theoretical preservers 

 to the contrary. The only matter worthy of attention in 

 this respect is the limiting of the expense, which by careful 

 and considerate action may be brought well below the 

 extravagant and unnecessary cost of half a guinea per 

 pheasant shot which some preservers with large pockets 

 and larger imaginations claim to expend. 



The chief difficulties which will present themselves on 

 the first attempt to raise a stock of pheasants are such as 

 may be expected under the circumstances. In the first place, 

 we have coverts into which we turn a number of birds ; they 

 find none of their kind already established there, and naturally 

 seek to find other habitats more suited to their natural 

 likings. Then, being strange to the place, they are more 

 liable to be poached off very quickly, unless strict vigilance 



