PHEASANT SHOOTING. 391 



plantations of larch or other quick-growing trees. 

 Pheasants generally choose the larch or spruce-fir 

 to roost in, and plantations of this description, if 

 near corn, turnip, or potato fields, afford sufficient 

 cover for them. They are, in many counties, 

 allowed to become so numerous, as to do serious 

 mischief to the labours of husbandry. 



It is not usual to kill the hens wherever pheasants 

 are strictly preserved ; but it is necessary to kill 

 the cocks where they are too numerous. Pheasants 

 do not pair. As it is better that there should be 

 but few cocks, the shooter's being able to single 

 them out and kill them, tends ultimately to the 

 increase, and not to the diminution of the number 

 of birds in cover. At the commencement of the 

 season the shooter will frequently flush a nide of 

 pheasants, but in the after part of the season he 

 will oftener find solitary birds. Pheasants will 

 occasionally wander a considerable distance from 

 the wood to which they belong, especially during 

 winter in search of food, and in wet and foggy 

 weather. The pheasant basks at the root of a tree, 

 or under a hedge, in the same manner as the 

 partridge, but each bird nestles itself separately. 

 Pheasants approach nearer to domesticated poultry 

 than any other kind of game. Pheasant shooting 

 is most destructive where the plantations are not 

 more than forty yards wide, when the shooters 

 remain on the outside, while the beaters and dogs 

 put up the game within. The pheasant shooter 

 does not expect set shots ; his object is to cause the 

 birds to rise as near to him as he can. Having no 



