54 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AYIAPJES. 



ca.l)ljao-es will ulTonl a most excellent aliment td tlie ]il)easant, 

 and are particularly sei'viceable when the ground is deeply 

 covered with snow. I ol'ten think that jilieasants are 

 uninti'iitionally destroyed l)y farmei's during' the autmnnul 

 se(.'(l-tinie. Tliey have a custom ni steeping tin' wheat in 

 arsenic watei'. 'I'liis must lie injurious to birds whicli piick 

 up the corn remaining on the surface of the mould. I snnie- 

 tinies find pheasants, at this period, dead in the ]ilantatirins, 

 and W}\\ and then take them up weak and languid, and ipiite 

 unable to tly. [ will mention liere ,^ little rcibbery by the 

 pheasants wdiicli has entirely deprived nie of a gratification 

 T used formerly to experience in an evening's saunter down 

 the vale. They have completely exterminated the grass- 

 ho])pers, Foi- the last fourteen years I have not. once heard 

 the voice of this merry summer cliarnun' in the jiarty. 



" In order to render useless all attempts of the nocturnal 

 poacher to destroy the jjheasants, it is absiilutely necessary 

 tha,t a place of securitj- should Ije foianed. I kiniw of no 

 position more ajipropriate than a piece of level ground at the 

 bottom of the hill, bordered by a gentle stream. About three 

 acres of this^ sowed with whins, and surrtmnded by a liolly fence 

 to keep the cattle out, would be the very thing. In the centre 

 of it, for the s])ace of one acre, there ought to be planted 

 spruce tir trees, about 14ft. asunder. Xe.xt to the larch, tliis 

 species of tiee is generally preferred by tlie ])heasants for 

 theii- roosting-pla,ce; and it is quite impossibh' that the 

 poachers can shoot them in these tri;es. Moreover, mau-pies 

 and jays will always resort to them ;-.t nightfall ; and they 

 never biil to give the alarm on the first appearance of an 

 enemy. Six or seven d(j7,en of wooden pheasants, naileil on 

 the branches of trees in the surrounding woods, cause 

 unutterable vexation and loss of ammunition to these 

 amateurs of nocturnal plunder. Small cbimps ,4 hollit^s and 

 yew trees, with holly hedges round them, are (4' infinite 

 service, when planted at intervals of one hundi'ed and fifty 

 yards. To these the pheasants fly on the sudden ajipiroach of 



