PHEASANT SHOOTING 
O N the day of shooting a covert, stops should be placed 
very early in the morning on the outsides, for when 
it promises to be fine the birds, especially the cocks, very 
quickly set off wandering in search of food. The stops 
should not be far away from the covert, about 100 yards, 
and when the covert is being beaten they should be drawn 
in still closer, unless they are at the very end, for if the game once comes 
out of the wood it will very likely make a dash for safety, in spite of the stops. 
If, however, their attention is drawn to the stops before they have stepped 
into the open, they will be chary about showing themselves outside. The 
stops at the end of the covert, however, if no guns are placed there, should 
be about 100 yards away, and then any pheasants flying forward will pro- 
bably stay their flight, and drop into the wood ; whereas if they are over 
the men before they notice them they will be alarmed, and flying on 
may not be seen again. Pheasants driven out of one covert and fleeing to 
another will not stay there, unless it is well stopped, if the wood is a small 
one, but will run right through it, perhaps for a mile, before they think 
they are safe. If pheasants have to be driven back to the covert they have 
just left, it is well to leave them quiet for an hour or more, or a number 
are sure to break out in any direction rather than return to where they 
think there is danger. Hedges leading from a wood, or broken ground 
where a pheasant can run unseen, must always be carefully guarded; 
though if these lie between two coverts, and there is only a limited 
number of stops available, the birds may be allowed to make use of 
their legs, and to run forward into the other wood. 
The ends of coverts should not be bare, or the birds, when they run 
forward, will note the guns placed there, and will then break back rather 
than come out. If there is no under-covert some strong thorn branches, 
or beach boughs with withered leaves on, should be firmly implanted in 
the soil a little distance from the end, and if this is done at the end of March 
the herbage will spring up and interlace with the branches during the 
summer, and having their support, does not get beaten flat if snow should 
fall, making excellent covert for the birds. The branches should be placed 
in blocks several yards square, with lanes between for the beaters to walk 
along. Each spring the rotten stuff should be removed and burned, and 
fresh branches put in its place. To prevent too large a number of pheasants 
congregating together, and getting up en masse, it is well worth trying 
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