CHAPT EH Rar. 
MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN PRESERVES. 
FORMATION OF COVERTS. 
%\; EFORE any satisfactory progress can be made in the pre- 
servation of pheasants, the existence of good and well- 
protected coverts is indispensable; and where these do not 
naturally exist, the very first action of the game preserver 
must be to effect their plantation on a scale commensurate 
with his desires. This necessarily cannot be done without 
expense, but a large stock of pheasants cannot be secured, 
save under the most exceptional circumstances, without a 
very considerable outlay. 
Some few years since the subject of the formation of coverts 
for pheasants was discussed in a very exhaustive manner in 
the columns of Zhe Field, and some admirable practical letters, detailing the 
experiences of the writers, appeared in that paper; these are worthy of the most 
attentive consideration, and I have great pleasure in availing myself of the 
opportunity of quoting largely from them. One of the most practical of the writers, 
Mr. R. Carr Ellison, of Dunston Hill, near Gateshead, strongly advocates the 
formation of pheasant roosts of spruce and silver firs, as affording the birds absolute 
security against the attacks of night poachers. He writes :—“A number of country 
gentlemen who do not consider field sports of primary importance, feel it right to 
abstain from the preserving of pheasants. They see that the temptation which 
these birds offer, when perched upon naked larches and other trees, at night, 
is too strong to be resisted by many a lad or working man in the vicinity, 
who, but for this particular allurement to evil, might go on respectably and quietly 
enough. They know that their duty towards their own sons is to keep them out 
of needless temptations, and they are unwilling to expose the sons of other and 
poorer men to trials which experience shows they too often cannot resist. Some 
have forbidden all night watching of these birds, trusting them entirely to the 
protection of the pines and firs scattered in their plantations, and in the branches 
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