87 Pheasants. 



The water-supply for birds in covert is a far more 

 important matter than is generally supposed, and a great 

 deal of the non-success in maintaining birds in some wood- 

 lands may be directly ascribed to the want or shortness 

 of a sufBcient supply of palatable water. It does not 

 appear to occur to keepers and perservers that water- 

 courses may run dry, springs give out, and ponds dry up. 

 All of these accidents occur at times, not only in high 

 summer, and the same effect may be produced by periods 

 of dry frost. Next to provision of a proper food-supply 

 comes that of a proper water-supply, and if the natural 

 conditions of the ground under preservation be such as to 

 restrict or actually not to offer the same, then adequate 

 means must be taken to rectify the want. 



The best and simplest means to adopt are to divert any 

 possible water-courses, and run them through the coverts 

 in artificial channels. This is not a difficult matter, once 

 the system of taking the necessary levels is understood, and 

 providing the ground is not of such nature as to allow the 

 streams produced to lose themselves. Quite a small source 

 of water can be utilised if the channels are formed so as to 

 ensure a free run of water, which at intervals can be held 

 back if necessary to provide larger and more easily acces- 

 sible drinking-pools for the birds. 



Where, however, there exist no means of diverting a 

 stream of water through a covert, and it is otherwise devoid 

 of a supply, then other methods must be adopted to provide 

 it. As a rule, most waterless coverts lie upon a slope, 

 and this being the case, it is usually possible to form one 

 or even a series of surface cisterns, which, by the aid 

 of small channels cut through the woodland, can be 

 supplied with a sufficiency of rain-water, caught and led 

 into them. 



In order to provide an effective supply of pure water 



