2i Pheasants. 



Together with the ubiquitous bramble and bracken, these 

 trees would present a shelter alluring to the birds. 

 A chapter will be devoted later to the description, 

 general management, and improvement of pheasant- 

 coverts, so that this part of the matter can be left for the 

 present. 



The introduction of pheasants upon land hitherto 

 destitute alike either of game-birds or of any form of 

 preserving is a task which is generally difficult and nearly 

 always expensive. 



The chief difficulties which will present themselves on 

 the first attempt to raise a stock of pheasants are such as 

 may be expected under the circumstances. In the first 

 place, we have coverts into which we turn a number of 

 birds; they find none of their kind already established 

 there, and naturally seek to find other habitats more suited 

 to their natural likings. Then, being strange to the place, 

 they are more liable to be poached off quickly, unless strict 

 vigilance be kept, while vermin of all sorts will have 

 previously had their own free will to multiply to an 

 unlimited extent, and will make their presence felt by 

 wholesale destruction of the game. Consequently, the 

 first steps taken must be to destroy the vermin as far as 

 possible, at the same time using every endeavour to prevent 

 the birds from straying off. The most effective and prac- 

 tical manner of gaining this end is to rear the nucleus of 

 one's stock in a semi-wild state, so that the young birds, 

 never knowing otherwise, adapt themselves immediately 

 to the place and attract any old and wild birds which may 

 be upon the place by their company. The vermin is best 

 and most easily cleared out to a large extent before any 

 birds are turned down or reared, and, this matter once 

 satisfactorily disposed of, a determination can be arrived 

 at as to the plan for raising the prospective head of birds. 



