PHEASANT SHOOTING. 393 



The best time to find pheasants out of cover is 

 the first hour after sunrise, while they are feeding 

 in the adjacent stubble and turnip fields. When 

 they have done feeding, a few stragglers, instead of 

 returning to the cover, will remain under the 

 hedges of the fields in which they feed. At noon, 

 when the sun shines brightly, a few will venture 

 out of the woods, and bask under thick hedges, or 

 holly-bushes, or amongst brambles, but seldom at 

 any great distance from cover. During a dense 

 fog, pheasants venture farthest from the woods. 

 While the leaves are upon the trees, they seldom 

 wander far from the place where they were hatched, 

 or the wood or plantation to which they may be 

 said to belong. 



At the beginning of October, pheasant-shooting 

 is combined with hare and partridge shooting, the 

 sport being conducted on the outside of the larger 

 and denser covers, or in the brakes or coppices, 

 where the foliage does not intercept a view of the 

 rising birds. The young ones are then by no 

 means full-grown, nor have they attained that 

 brilliancy of plumage, which they afterwards acquire. 

 They are more alarmed at the dog than at the 

 shooter, and consequently, to avoid the former will 

 fly almost in the face of the latter. Towards the 

 end of October, when the leaves fall, and the 

 brambles decay, the sportsman ventures within the 

 covers. 



In November, pheasant shooting is combined 

 with woodcock shooting ; the trees are leafless, the 

 sportsman's gap and gun-road are open ; and if, 



