184 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



to scorn the cat, the stoat, the fox and the 

 poacher. 



This paradise for pheasants is situated in an 

 open part of the park, not far from the lake. A 

 thick hedge of holly surrounds a clump of yew 

 trees, in an oval form, and is rendered still more 

 secure by a ditch which encircles it externally. 

 This holly hedge is regularly clipped and quite 

 impenetrable from top to bottom ; being in fact 

 an evergreen wall, and the only entrance is by a 

 small gate which is carefully locked. Within, a 

 narrow space intervenes between it and the yew 

 trees, which being also constantly cut on the top 

 and underneath, have so spread and interwoven 

 their lateral branches as to form a dense verdant 

 canopy overhead, through which not a single ray 

 of light can penetrate. To enter this evergreen 

 grotto it is necessary to stoop very low through a 

 little archway cut in the thick foliage, but when 

 once arrived at the interior a man may stand 

 almost upright. Then, and not until then, the 

 advantages of the place as an asylum for pheasants 

 become evident. There is no under cover or 

 brushwood, and therefore no inducement to the 

 birds to sleep on the ground where they too 

 frequently, in less favoured spots, become the 

 prey of nocturnal four-footed vermin ; while the 

 horizontal branches of the yew trees afford every- 



