PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



letting and a sporting point of view, and lucky are those 

 for whom nature has settled the question of high birds, 

 I am, perhaps, one of those lucky ones, living as I do near 

 the South Downs, just on the borders of Hampshire and 

 Sussex. The stiff slopes of some of our shooting ground 

 are ideal spots, and when some of the guns who stand below 

 hill don't come off well, it is no uncommon thing for us to 

 hear the remark, ' Too high 1 too high ! ' But we also have 

 some low level covers, and the difficulty has always been 

 how to get good shots from these. Our own level covers 

 are small, and consequently not so difficult to manage as 

 large level covers, but all level shooting, whether big or 

 small, can be made more interesting by a little care and 

 thought on the part of those who are in authority. 



" First, then, study the wind before you approach a small 

 cover. Often shooting plans are made beforehand which, 

 if carried out when the wind is all against you, must result in 

 certain failure. Have an alternative way to beat your cover. 

 You cannot manage the wind ! 



' ' Then, again, many people make a mistake by putting the 

 birds up at just one particular spot, because it is the most 

 likely way to get them forward into the next beat. Perhaps 

 the birds always fly low and badly from that spot : whereas 

 if they were flushed a bit farther back or at another angle in 

 the cover, it would make all the difference. 



" Placing the guns. — Very much depends on where the 

 guns are placed as to what sort of shooting they will get. 

 The best way, whether outside or inside a level cover, is for 

 the guns to stand well back so that they can see which birds 

 are going to be worth shooting at. I have seen some good 

 results got thus. I have seen some fine shooting when birds 

 have been driven out of a big cover across a field say five 

 chains across, the guns all standing the opposite side of the 



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