SHOOTING 319 



to be in that place before ; so we began, and very 

 soon found that they had nearly all migrated from 

 their usual quarters to this place, above four hun- 

 dred being killed in this small cover. How they 

 got there no one could guess ; there were not any 

 connecting hedgerows or ploughed fields, and they 

 had roosted in their usual places. 



The second case occurred to myself. I wished to 

 beat a small cover of my own of about four acres, 

 as we knew^ there were some pheasants there, and 

 being an outlying one it was not altogether safe ; 

 so I gave orders that the place should be netted, 

 and " stops," &c , sent out, and then went and beat 

 it, but to my great surprise found scarcely anything. 

 The keeper w^as utterly puzzled too ; we tried all 

 the likely spots round with no result, and I came to 

 the conclusion that some poachers must have beaten 

 the wood very early that day. However, as we 

 were going off, the quick eye of my keeper detected 

 a pheasant running in an old grassy lane near, and 

 we resolved to try this ; and w^ell it was we did ; 

 every bush and tuft of grass seemed to hold a pheas- 

 ant, and we made a capital bag, killing all but one, 

 to my keeper's great satisfaction. Several more 

 were got than the number he had mentally put 

 down for the cover to yield ; however, in this case 

 we at length detected the way they had got out. 



