PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



Perhaps, too, an old fox is sent back, which if it had been 

 sent forward might have cheered the heart of a sportsman, 

 and, who knows, might have got the poor keeper a better 

 name ? Now, if the sewelling is used, directly the Pheasants 

 run up within seeing distance, they halt, stretch their necks, 

 then up they go, never having seen such a thing before, 

 and hearing the beaters coming up behind they very seldom 

 turn and fly back, but will go high over the guns. If hand- 

 reared birds, they will rise and fly better than wild ones ; 

 this I have proved over and over again. My theory for 

 this being that the wild bird is so often disturbed by foxes 

 and other vermin — (are foxes vermin ?) — that they only 

 rise and fly far enough to get out of their way. Not so 

 with the hand-reared Pheasant. He is on most estates 

 watched by night and day from the minute he comes out of 

 the shell until the minute he falls to the shot, and when 

 shooting day comes with all the fresh sounds, and being 

 driven about as he has never been before, up he goes, and 

 as I said before, if flushed well in front of the guns, he 

 will go high enough." 



244 



