BRINGING PHEASANTS TO THE GUNS 293 



sleep, and therefore it is an investment for posterity. So also is 

 a pheasant covert in a less degree. 



The real test of woodcraft arises when coverts are flat and 

 there are no tall trees. Then it is still possible to make 

 pheasants fly high enough for anyone, provided a few favourable 

 conditions exist. Before referring to these, it may be well to 

 say a word on the character of the pheasant ; for it is only by 

 knowing this that a shooter can make sure of getting the birds 

 to behave as they are required to in unexpected or unfavour- 

 able conditions. The pheasant, then, is the most timid of game 

 birds; whether he has been hand reared or is of wild bred 

 origin, this character clings to him. He is, besides, as super- 

 stitious as a young lady alone in a haunted house. He is 

 frightened at any material object, but he is much more afraid 

 of the unseen and suspected enemy. In the pheasant pens 

 some cocks get very familiar with their feeders, and will even 

 spar at and wound them with their spurs ; possibly they think 

 that this treatment is the influence that brings the food. The 

 same bird that attacks a strong bearded giant of forty within 

 the bars would go frantic with fear if an unknown child of three 

 summers toddled up to the outside of the bars of the pen. In 

 the coverts the bird is still the same creature of impulse. If 

 you make a noise, he will run before you, for he understands 

 perfectly well what is making the noise ; but if you move 

 forward silently, and come upon the pheasant unawares, he 

 will not run, but will either crouch and sit tight, or fly, and very 

 likely go back over the head of his disturber. Indeed, it is 

 generally as easy to guide a lot of pheasants as a motor car, and 

 much more so when the latter skids. Pheasants do not skid ; 

 they do nothing for nothing, and everything is done for a very 

 good reason. Theirs are not chance movements at any time. 

 Knowing that a pheasant is superstitious, it is exceedingly easy 

 to prevent him from going on foot where he is not wanted, but 

 he is only superstitious as long as he is on foot. Noises made 

 by hidden "stops" will have no effect whatever upon him the 

 moment he gets upon the wing. Then he must see in order 

 to fear. 



