ia8 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



I could have made sure of about a hundred of 

 those pheasants by driving them to and fro over 

 the rides. You seldom find a keeper reluctant 

 to show his birds in a sporting way, if the guns 

 are likely to hit a fair proportion of them. But 

 when guns are known or prove to be consistently 

 bad, can it be wondered at that keepers should 

 give some thought to the bag, by which, un- 

 fortunately, tips too often are measured ? It is 

 not human for men who, to quote from the 

 language of beaters, have shot ' summat scandalous ' 

 or * rascallion-bad ' to be generous. 



I often have seen pheasants fail to give sport 

 in circumstances apparently the same as when, 

 on many other occasions, they have come well. 

 Suppose one has a wood which is not only of 

 convenient size to take in one beat right out to 

 the guns in the open, but, so beaten, gives a 

 maximum amount of shooting at birds passably 

 good, if not actually tall this may be so for several 

 years, while the underwood is fairly short and thick 

 at the bottom. Then there comes a time when the 

 birds will persist in going back, while those that 

 do come forward do not rise far enough away 

 to be good when they reach the guns. Often 

 have I seen this sort of thing, and heard people 

 discussing the puzzle, which generally was put 

 down to the birds' ' cussedness.' (No pheasants 

 will face guns in the open in the teeth of a gale, 



