THE ROOSTING HABIT 119 



young birds no longer remain with their mothers ; 

 the young cocks begin to feel self-conscious and 

 gallant in their fine feathers, growing richer daily, 

 and duels are fought as by way of practice for the 

 fierce struggles of their first spring. You may hear 

 at the roosting-time of the birds the crude efforts of 

 the young cocks to say " cock-up " instead of " peep- 

 peep." Their utterances are an inharmonious blend- 

 ing of treble and bass ; indeed old pheasant cocks and 

 the birds of the year are as different in voice as 

 grown men and choir-boys, old rooks and young. 



If one thing annoys a keeper more than another, it 

 is to have foxes turned down on his beat without 



warning. It is bad enough that foxes 

 The should be turned down at all especially 



Habit 1 ' before the young pheasants have learned 



the trick of going into the trees to roost. 

 Most of the pheasants living in and about the 

 woods should go to roost by the middle of August, 

 and only late birds may be excused if they have not 

 acquired the roosting habit by the First. In the 

 past the keeper was relieved of a load of anxiety 

 if all his hand-reared birds went to tree by the First 

 for with the long days spent in the partridge fields 

 he was unable to watch over his pheasants at night. 

 But in these days, when there is so little partridge 

 shooting in early September, the keeper has more 

 time to give to his pheasants, and his anxieties are 



