Practical Game-Preserving. 88 



the position of the cistern or cisterns will have to be 

 towards the lower centre of the covert; but a good deal 

 depends upon the natural trend of the ground, and the 

 catch-channels should be directed accordingly. Where the 

 ground to be served is of any great extent, a series of 

 channels and cisterns can be formed, which will ensure 

 a fair supply for the whole of it. Naturally, care is 

 necessary in making the former so that they shall really 

 carry the water to the latter and not lose it in their course. 



The cisterns are best formed in the following manner, 

 the size of them being, however, regulated by the possi- 

 bilities of the flow of water an oblong space of, say, 

 loft, by 4ft. wide, and of such depth as shall ensure a 

 level bottom to it when finished, and giving a depth of 

 water of 3in. or 4in. When the space has been suffi- 

 ciently hollowed out, the soil taken being banked up 

 around the lower portion, beat down a foundation of 

 heavy clay, shaping the basin to be formed, in the first 

 instance, of this material, and allowing it to dry 

 thoroughly. Upon this lay a coating lin. thick of concrete 

 of equal parts cement and sand, finishing off with a Jin. 

 facing of pure cement. At each of the upper corners 

 form an inlet for the water coming from the channels, and 

 on the lower a shallow outlet for any surplus which can 

 be similarly conducted to other tanks or cisterns. 



In cases where a water-supply can be led through the 

 coverts, but where also this may prove of intermittent 

 character, cisterns or tanks of this kind constructed to take 

 any surplus, when there happens to be a free flow of 

 water, serve very well as reservoirs when the water-course 

 runs dry. 



The maintenance of a water-supply during periods of 

 frost cannot, of course, be guaranteed by any means of this 

 description, and birds must be provided with such a 



