CHAPTER X, 



PHEASANTS: Coverts. Management and Planting. Sport- 

 ing Rides. Flushing-Trigs. Hedges. 



ANY work upon game-preserving would be incomplete 

 without something more than passing reference to the 

 various descriptions of woodlands which come under the 

 general denomination of pheasant -coverts. It is, however, 

 manifestly impossible to include in a work of this kind any 

 elaborate description of the formation of new coverts, 

 although the improvement and regulation of existing ones 

 must receive adequate attention. The planting of land for 

 the purpose of providing cover for game upon any material 

 scale involves the expenditure of such large amounts of 

 capital that anything of the kind is not usually undertaken 

 by the ordinary preserver. Upon the other hand, some 

 small or even moderately extensive additions to existing 

 coverts become necessary, and may be undertaken by him. 

 To these it may be advantageous to refer ; but beyond this 

 it is hardly necessary to go in the present volume. 



The choice of ground for a pheasant-preserve must, of 

 course, mainly depend upon the quantity and suitability 

 of the woodland upon it ; but as will have been made 

 apparent by remarks in earlier chapters, unless the soil 

 and situation be of the right nature, the coverts may 

 be, for all their apparent worth, practically useless for 

 the purpose. Granted that soil and situation be adapted, 

 the nature of the woodland must be also in its turn of such 



