38 MANAGEMENT OP PHEASANTS IN PEESERVES. 



It is probable that this procedure is frequently carried too far, and in confirmation 

 of this view I have much pleasure in quoting Mr. J. D. DougaU, who, in. his 

 " Shooting Simplified," says : " It is customary to shoot cock pheasants only, and 

 to impose a fine upon the sportsmen who break this rule, the money being escheated 

 to the head keeper, or applied to defray the expenses of a dinner at the end of 

 the season, when shootings are rented by a party of gentlemen. This rule is very 

 frequently overstretched. It should not he forgotten that the desired end may be 

 frustrated by having too many hens, as well as by having too few, and in 

 whatever way the disproportion of sexes is caused, the result — reduction in 

 increase — ^is the same. If the cocks are continually kUled down, few male birds 

 wUl arrive at that complete maturity so essential to producing a healthy stock. 

 On the other hand, if the hens are continually spared, they will not only grow 

 out of proportion to the number of cocks, but the aged hens will beat off the 

 two and three year old birds. Very old hens should certainly be destroyed. The 

 most prolific are the two and three year old birds." 



A correspondent who supports this view writes : "It is very certain that iu 

 many instances too few cocks are frequently left in preserved coverts at the end 

 of the season; it is also notorious that in the neighbourhood of many preserves 

 a nide of above fourteen birds (and I have known eighteen) is not unfrequently 

 produced from an outlying cock and hen occupying some detached covert, and 

 yields the best birds of the season when the 1st of October arrives. "With respect 

 to the proportion of cocks to be left much may be written about it, depending 

 upon all circumstances connected with the ground under the entire control of the 

 individual seeking to preserve a given stock of pheasants. In all cases, in my 

 opinion, too much forbearance is shown to hens early in the season, and much too 

 little towards cocks at the end. The safe plan, in all cases, is to adapt one or 

 two small coverts, as much in the centre of your ground as possible, as your 

 feeding places for your stock birds, and before the middle of December the exact 

 number of birds which by judicious management you have collected there may be 

 ascertained by a few days' careful observation. With attention and the greatest 

 forbearance towards these (no old cocks being left among their number), you 

 may kill freely elsewhere, and insure to your friends and yourself plenty of sport 

 the following season from them and their progeny." 



With regard to the exact proportion of sexes left in the coverts, it is difficult 

 to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. One writer states : "It would be to the 

 advantage of preservers of pheasants if they would, before it is too late, refrain 

 from shooting the cock birds too close, as most game preservers, I presume, wish 

 to have as good and numerous a stock of pheasants as they can for breeding ; and 

 the reason why so many are disappointed in this respect is for want of more cock 

 birds. There should be left at least one cock for every three hens, as eggs then 



