310 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



with most unsatisfactory results ; while there can 

 be no real prevention of damage except by shoot- 

 ing down the prolific little conies, as has been 

 done in the case of hares in most parts of Eng- 

 land, and by keeping them in due check after 

 that. In comparison with the ravages of ground 

 game, the damage done by pheasants in scratching 

 up sowings in nurseries and in woods being regene- 

 rated naturally, and that wrought by other game- 

 birds in the forests, is insignificant. This class 

 of shooting really need not interfere with good 

 Forestry to any really appreciable extent unless the 

 various necessary operations in the woods are, as 

 is now usually the case, prohibited from being 

 carried out at the seasonable, suitable, and only 

 proper time for conducting them. Such greater 

 freedom for the benefit of Forestry would of 

 course disturb the pheasants, and make them wild 

 and shy; but it would certainly tend to raise 

 pheasant shooting once more from the low level 

 of mere speed and marksmanship up to the higher 

 position it once occupied as a branch of true sport. 

 For such purposes copsewoods have special ad- 

 vantages over high woods or coppices ; and this, 

 along with other advantages previously indicated, 



