CHAPTER XXIX 



Feeding Adult Birds in Covert 



The management of Pheasants whilst they are in covert, 

 which they are expected to be for nearly six months in the 

 year — at any rate, from September until February — taxes 

 the ingenuity of the keeper and his resourcefulness quite as 

 much as on the rearing-field ; in other words, his anxieties, 

 as to the measure of sport to be afforded, are based upon the 

 Successful management of his charge whilst within the confines 

 of the covert. In addition to the multifarious enemies in 

 the form of vermin, he has a still greater enemy to contend 

 with, or rather he may have, namely, the poacher, the latter 

 existing either as the rank out-and-out poacher or as the 

 pottering sportsman, whose observant methods enable him 

 to take advantage of Pheasants that have strayed from the 

 coverts, through which channel a considerable number of 

 birds may, in a single season, be lost to the lawful owner. 



Naturally the sportsman who devotes a large amount of 

 time and a great deal of expense in connection with the arti- 

 ficial rearing of Pheasants, expects the keeper to be able to 

 produce a good show of birds when the time for shooting the 

 covert arrives. Not only must the birds be plentiful, but 

 they must be strong on the wing, and in good fettle, which 

 they will certainly not be unless they are liberally fed, or the 

 conditions are such that the coverts yield an abundance of 

 natural food in the form of beech-nuts, acorns, etc. 



The fundamental principle of the complete preservation 

 of the Pheasants in the coverts is based upon the keeper's 



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