DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH. 185 



thing desirable in a roosting place. Even during 

 the day it would be difficult to perceive a pheasant 

 when perched among them. If notwithstanding 

 all these obstacles to the ingress of an unwel- 

 come visitor, one should succeed in reaching the 

 centre of the clump and alarm the pheasants, they 

 would drop quietly from the branches of the yews 

 upon the smooth ground, and running through 

 the hollow space below towards the exterior, ar- 

 rive at once in the narrow passage between them 

 and the holly hedge where there is sufficient room 

 to enable them to start from the ground, and 

 their first appearance from the outside would be 

 just as they topped the summit in a rapid flight 

 to another place of security. Such a spot is of 

 course secure from the depredations of the night 

 shooter; and the impenetrable nature of the 

 hollies, through which even the pheasants them- 

 selves cannot force a passage, baffles at the same 

 time the machinations of the wirer and trapper. 



I was delighted to see a second clump of the 

 same sort at some distance, which has been 

 planted about five or six years, and promises to 

 equal that which I have attempted to describe, 

 when it has seen as many summers. 



It may be objected that the length of time that 

 must elapse before it can arrive at perfection, is a 

 serious drawback to the practical utility of such a 



