298 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



Pheasants will rarely fly away to ground they do not know, 

 but they can be made to run there. The principle of driving 

 them is to leave one end open and close three sides by means 

 of beaters or stops. But the birds have a natural tendency 

 to cling to cover as they run, not necessarily woods, but any 

 cover that can hide them ; turnips and gorse, broom and 

 ferns, they particularly like to run in. But in driving pheasants 

 along narrow strips of covert side stops have to be well back 

 from the plantation, otherwise by becoming aware of stops far 

 ahead the birds may believe themselves to be pounded, and then 

 they will fly at once, and usually towards their homes that is, 

 in the opposite direction to that in which they are wanted to go. 

 At Holkham, for the reason stated, a good deal of this shooting 

 of " pheasants back " is prohibited ; but in many places it is the 

 most appreciated of all, for those that fly back over the heads of 

 the advancing line in covert are sure to be high 100 yards behind 

 the rise, whereas in the line they may give rather tame shooting. 



The latest generation of pheasant shooters looks back at the 

 sport of a hundred years ago with indifference and contempt 

 indifference because the birds were so few, and contempt 

 because it believes the shooting was very easy. Some of it was 

 very easy, no doubt ; but in those days there were no rides 

 through the woods, and some of them were so thick that leather 

 jackets had to be worn by sportsmen, who would force through 

 after spaniels, or try to, and often find that even then they could 

 not do it. The gamekeeper's change of dress from velveteen to 

 Harris or home-spun cloth indicates the change that has taken 

 place in the coverts. Forestry has more or less come in, and 

 with the more thickly planted trees, blackthorn and bramble, 

 white thorn and gorse, have been stifled by want of sun and air. 

 The pheasant now runs in the open covert, whereas he would 

 lie close in the bramble and gorse bushes, which often grew 

 8 or 9 feet high. Pheasant shooting in the " hind legs " was 

 not child's play ; it was dreadfully hard work, and the snap 

 shots given were often most difficult, but the difficulty was not 

 of the same kind as that of the fast, high bird in the open, 

 which is mostly one to overcome by cool judgment and 



