62 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



round tie end to make a headj and run the peg into the body. 

 Tie these imitations on the branches of larch trees here and 

 there. Pheasants prefer this kind of tree to others^ in con- 

 sequence of the boughs coming out straight, and so allowiDg 

 them a flat surface to sit on. In woods where there are no 

 foxeSj and where the ground vermin has been well killed 

 down, it is a good plan (especially if you think it a Hkely 

 night for poachers) to unroost the pheasants in the evening. 

 They will not fly up again that night. If you begin hj 

 Tinroosting the pheasants when they are young, and have 

 only flown up a few nights, they will take to roosting on the 

 ground altogether, and never fly up at all. Pheasants that 

 have not been accustomed to be driven down at all are made 

 rather shy by the frequent repetition of this performance, and 

 it may drive them away. They are very easily frightened. 

 If you begin shooting rabbits, &c., they will take the alarm. 

 They can't stand guns going off constantly in the coverts 

 w^here they are." 



Imitation pheasants thus made will only last a single 

 season ; should anything more permanent be desired, recourse 

 must be had to those made of wood, which may be cheaply 

 and efficiently constructed on the following plan, the sugges- 

 tion of a correspondent, who states : " Six years since I had 



a number of wooden ones made and set up, and hundreds 

 remain to this day. The manufacture was simple. Take a 

 fir pole, saw it through at an angle of 45° ; this cut, when 

 rounded off, forms the breast of the bird ; a cut at 22^° forms 

 the tail-end. So, by making alternate cuts at 45° and 22^°, 

 you may cut up the pole without waste, as shown in the plan 

 sent herewith. A lath cut through in like manner at a very 

 acute angle forms a capital tail, which should be put on, but 

 nearer the perpendicular than shown in the engraving, as 

 pheasants roost with the tail hanging nearly straight down, 



