52 Practical Game Preserving. 



advantage to keepers that there be some small clear foot- 

 paths intersecting all the coverts, such paths to be free 

 of brambles and bits of dead wood. At night time when 

 all is silent it is a matter of impossibility to walk about a 

 covert without stepping on dead twigs and boughs, which 

 make a noise that would discover any poacher or keeper 

 one to another. If, however, the latter has a clean, clear 

 path to go upon, the advantage is manifest. 



There should always be two or three comparatively thick 

 dark coverts, or portions thereof, set apart as night coverts 

 for pheasants, and which are never disturbed. These must 

 consist largely, if possible, of spruce and silver fir, and if 

 the pheasants can find a little food there at all times, 

 they will soon resort to them regularly as a roosting 

 place, quitting them, however, at day time for more con- 

 genial parts. 



The hedges of pheasant coverts are a matter deserving 

 of a certain amount of attention in relation to the practice 

 of poaching. They should always be well kept. When 

 hedges pure and simple, blackthorn or whitethorn are indis- 

 pensable, as they alone can be grown and trimmed till 

 impenetrable, while if the boundary consist of a hedgerow 

 or bank topped by growth, it is equally important that 

 it be well kept, and the higher and steeper the better. 

 Large bushes and trees should never be allowed to grow 

 on hedgerows. If the plantation is young and wants 

 shelter, then the beech trees planted with this aim are 

 best put a yard or two inside, where they will have an 

 equally good effect. Furthermore, rabbits are best kept 

 away from the banks around the pheasant coverts. They 



