1 12 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDK. 



to lay, until their haunt is broken, and they retire 

 into the corn, or some place more secure. The 

 young ones, like partridges, follow the mother as soon 

 as they have hroken the shell ; and they remain 

 amongst the stuhbles, and in the bottoms of hedges, 

 for some time after the corn is ripe, if they are un- 

 disturbed ; in case of the contrary, they then seek 

 the covers, whence they issue morning and evening to 

 feed as long as food is to be found among the stub-^ 

 bles; when corn no longer remains, they feed on 

 acorns and the wild berries of the woods. 



Pheasant-shooting is very laborious, and requires 

 the sportsman to be properly equipped for a cover; 

 and in my opinion strong woollen cloth gaiters are 

 preferable to leather, as, in wet weather, the latter 

 are very uncomfortable, and the former are a suffi- 

 cient guard against the briars, &c, 



If the night before you shoot be wet, the droppings 

 of the trees will compel the pheasants to quit the 

 woods; and in this case the hedge-rows and furze 

 covers should be tried very carefully, and good sport 

 \vill most likely be obtained. This bird is much 

 an ached to almost all sorts of covers, especially to 

 the sides of pits where alder trees are growing. 



Of all clogs, none are so good for this sport as the 

 setter (see the article SETTER). But nothing can be 

 more ridiculous than to use bell* in this diversion, 

 since, most undoubtedly, as little noise as possible 

 should be made. Pointers are frequently too tender 

 to follow this bird through the brambles, which is 



