VARIOUS WAYS OF TAKING PHEASANTS. 77 



breed in open or plain fields, nor under the covert of 

 corn fields, or low shrubby bushes. 



Having found their haunts, next you are to find their 

 eye or brood ; and here you are to observe, that phea- 

 sants come out of the woods and coverts three times a 

 day, to feed in fresh pastures, green wheat or other grain, 

 about sunrise, at noon, and a little before sunset. The 

 course to be followed is, to go to that side of the wood 

 where you suppose they make their sallies, and watch 

 the places where they come out ; or to search their 

 haunts ; for you may see the young pouts in that season 

 flbck and run together after the hen, like chickens. 

 Again, if you go to their haunts early in the morning or 

 late in the evening, you will hear the old cock and hen 

 call their young ones, and the young ones answer them, 

 and accordingly direct your path as near as you can to 

 the place where they are, then lie down as close as pos- 

 sible, that you may not be discerned ; observe how they 

 lodge together, the better to know how to pitch your 

 nets with advantage, at once of wind, weather, and 

 place ; and take care that all be done as silently as pos- 

 sible, otherwise they will betake themselves to their legs, 

 and not to their wings, unless forced to it by a close 

 pursuit. 



But the most certain way to find them is, to have an 

 artificial pheasant-call, wherein a person should be very 

 expert in the imitation of their notes, and the time when, 

 and to what purpose they use them ; their calls are much 

 the same as those used by hens in clucking their chickens. 



