12 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



it prefers some kinds of plantations to others. On many 

 estates, where the woods consist mainly of hard-woods, or de- 

 ciduous species, there are plenty of pheasants, and the birds do 

 well enough in summer ; but such woods are usually over- 

 thinned, and the trees being destitute of foliage from 

 November till April they are the coldest in winter, being open 

 to both winds and frost, and pheasants will forsake such woods 

 in winter for more sheltered coverts, if such are to be found, 

 or they will crowd into the warmest corners if they have no 

 choice. They will forsake an open hard-wood plantation for 

 a dense spruce or fir wood, if they have the chance, at almost 

 any season, and the greatest number of truly wild pheasants 

 we ever saw on any one estate was on one where the woods 

 consisted of pure spruce or deciduous trees mixed with spruce. 

 Keepers argue that in fir woods kept dense and close the tree 

 trunks get bare under the branches, which is true, but even 

 such woods pheasants prefer to naked hard-wood plantations. 

 For years we have noted the partiality of pheasants for such 

 woods because they were warm, the dense evergreen canopy 

 overhead preventing radiation, and the crowded stems breaking 

 the wind however hard it might blow. The wind blows 

 through a thin, leafless hard-wood plantation like through a 

 sieve, and even when dense, though then warmer, the hard- 

 wood plantation is still the coldest. What we wish to make 

 clear here more particularly, however, is that dense woods, 

 cropped with an eye to timber, are not only just as suitable for 

 game as thinly cropped, profitless woods, but that even if they 

 were not so they can be laid out and planted so as to obviate 

 any objections on that head, and can also be furnished with 

 underwood of a suitable kind that will grow. Let it be borne 

 in mind that the pheasant prefers the wood only for shelter 

 and breeding purposes, and the quieter the woods are the 

 better. It does not live in the woods continuously, but prefers 

 the rides, margins of the wood, and the open fields as a feeding 

 ground, where it also gets the sunshine. Sunny margins are 

 invariably preferred, and if birds are flushed anywhere in cold 

 wintry weather it will be in such spots, or under or near to 

 holly trees and other evergreens where there is shelter and 

 warmth. 



A point, the importance of which will be admitted by all 

 sportsmen, is that nothing more promotes the successful raising 

 of a good head of game than keeping woods and coverts 

 quiet and free from intrusion. For this reason, on some estates 

 keepers are not allowed to carry a gun to kill vermin, trapping 



