CHAPTER III. 



MANAGEMENT OP PHEASANTS IN PKESERYES, 



EORMATION OF COVEETS. 



EFOE/E any satisfactory progress can be made in tlie 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 The 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 



