46 Formation of Coverts. 



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, in the branches of which it is impossible 

 for anyone to see the pheasants which happen to select them 

 as a roosting-place. Now I have for twenty-two j^ears pre- 

 served these birds in very considerable numbers without any 

 night watching, and in a country where all my neighbours 

 have been repeatedly visited by gangs of poachers, coming 

 sometimes from considerable distances, as well as by occasional 

 depredators of the vicinity. I resolved to reject all night 

 watching, and one of the first things that I did, as a very young 

 man, was to plant ten acres of spruce fir and Scotch pine in 

 a central and sheltered part of the estate, which might serve 

 as an impregnable roosting-place for pheasants. This was 

 thirty years ago and more. At ten j^ears of age the plantation 

 was already of great service, and at fifteen was invaluable. 

 As it has been regularly thinned, it is now as good as ever. 

 A number of birch-trees were intermixed, which were very 

 useful in drawing up and hastening the growth of the spruces 

 without exhausting the soil, as too great a multitude of firs 

 would have done. Nor do the pheasants resort to the birch 

 at night as they do to some other trees, larch especially, 

 because they find that its branches are not sufficiently 

 horizontal to afford commodious perches. 



" Ten years later I formed a second pheasant-roost of two 

 acres in extent, very near my house, and of this I have had 

 the full benefit for many years past. It is generally full of 

 pheasants, and not one of them is visible to the keenest ej^e in 

 the clearest moonlight. It consists of spruce and silver fir, 

 regularly and unsparingly thinned to keep the trees in health 

 and vigour. We never think of night watching, even though 

 guns be heard on adjoining estates, and the poachers have 

 long gi^en us up in despair. This lesser stronghold is kept 

 sacred from the guns of sportsmen, who are sure to find the 



