WILD-BRED AND HAND-REARED 195 



scale. Against this Lord Walsingham tells me that 

 he has killed from 2,000 to 2,500 wild-bred birds in a 

 season on the Merton estate.' This is one of the 

 points which will vary on different estates, according 

 to the nature of the nesting ground, the prevalence of 

 egg stealers, and the views of the head keeper or 

 manager. 



But in a cold and unfavourable country, expense 

 or not, you will do very little with wild birds, and had 

 better secure every egg you can. 



If you have a choice of coverts, belts, and woods, 

 you must, by various experiments, ascertain which of 

 them will really hold pheasants. There are some 

 woods which 'lie warm,' where it is no difficulty to 

 keep the birds you stock them with, and which yield 

 besides a varying but useful proportion of wild-bred 

 birds. These are not always large woods, nor always 

 those you would expect ; but never be misguided by 

 the ignorance of a keeper or by tradition into filling 

 with pheasants, year after year, a wood in which they 

 will not naturally stay. 



How often do you hear that the birds will always 

 draw down to such and such a covert, or stray over to 



' At Beaulieu in Hampshire, belonging to Lord Montagu oi 

 Beaulieu, one of the finest sporting places in England, the same 

 number of wild-bred birds has been killed in the season. 



