PHEASANTS: IN WAR 129 
in any circumstances.) This is what I believe 
to be the explanation of the cussedness puzzle: 
So long as the stuff is young, thick at the bottom, 
and short enough for pheasants to get a view of the 
advancing beaters over the top of the underwood, 
the birds go forward readily. Probably you get 
a prolonged rise, free from any undesirable rush 
at the finish, When, however, the underwood 
grows old and tall, it becomes correspondingly 
thinner at the bottom, but thicker at the top. 
Naturally the birds find it more convenient to 
run than to rise through a network of twigs. 
And so the majority run on, peep out, see the 
guns, retire, and squat in close formation just 
within the wood. There they squat, and watch 
the reception given to any hares and other creatures 
which venture to make a dash for it. The guns 
begin to think there can be no birds in the wood. 
The keeper longs for shooting to relieve the tension 
of his mind, and to deaden the apparently profitless 
tapping of the beaters’ sticks. He racks his brains 
to think how, where, and by whom some dreadful 
mistake has been made; whether the stops have 
‘played the fool,’ come away from their stations 
prematurely, or goodness knows what. Whatever 
has happened, he will get the blame. Then suddenly 
there is a sound of many wings, punctuated by the 
shouts of excited beaters and the cries of cocks 
in a mighty hurry—but few shots. The birds 
9 
