Feb. I, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
135 
gard to the sex of the bird they fire at, for a 
peculiarity obtains among pheasants which is per¬ 
haps little known, namely that after a certain 
age, the hen becomes barren, moults and assumes 
the plumage of the cock. In this state she is 
subject to the jealousy of all the males, and has 
an unnatural bent toward the destruction of 
whatever eggs of her own species she can find. 
Pheasant shooting commences on the first of 
October, and requires very well trained spaniels. 
Such as are strong in the chest and loins, with 
very short legs, are keen, obedient and courage¬ 
ous, should be selected. Unless these qualities 
exist, the sportsman will meet with great mor¬ 
tification. His dogs will put up the birds at a 
great distance, and after having fatigued them¬ 
selves, will hunt without spirit or discrimina¬ 
tion. They will drive the pheasants up among 
the low boughs in the woods, and puzzle to no 
purpose. Spaniels that have a taint, however re¬ 
mote of the hound, will be babblers, unsteady 
and quit birds for hares. If good, you cannot 
have too many spaniels for pheasant shooting, 
but if bad every additional dog will prove an 
additional tormentor. 
Hr. Daniel justly observes "there are no 
fixed rules for beating coverts. 'I'his, however, 
ought to be a standing regulation, never to beat 
in a slovenly manner. A nide of pheasants are 
sometimes collected in a very small space, and 
in the middle of the day conceal themselves very 
close. In the early part of the season pheasants 
prefer grassy, brambly, two and three-year-old 
slopes, and it is lost lalior to trj' higher growths. 
As the season advances, they will lie in clearer 
bottoms, especially among pits of water, which 
are sometimes found in woods. In winter skirt¬ 
ing the edges and afterwards by degrees, sink¬ 
ing deeper into the coverts, is, perhaps, where 
the game is not very plentiful, as good a mode 
as any. The haunt of the game that have been 
feeding in the adjoining fields will thus prob¬ 
ably be hit off, and it may at least serve to show 
whether there is game in the covert. If any 
of the spaniels are wide rangers, after traversing 
the wood well, always make a concluding circuit 
round the edge of it; depend upon getting shots 
by this means at those birds which may have 
run or llown from the interior parts.” 
Fowling, the art of taking or killing birds. 
It is either practiced as an amusement by per¬ 
sons of rank and property, and then principally 
consists in killing them with a light firearm, 
called a fowling piece, and the diversion is se¬ 
cured to them by the game laws; or it is prac¬ 
ticed for a livelihood by persons who use nets 
and other apparatus. Though there is much skill 
and knowledge displayed in fowling with the 
fowling piece, not only in the use of the in¬ 
strument, but likewise in the training of dogs 
and discovering and starting the game, we must, 
from the nature of our limits, avoid entering 
into this subject. The other artifices, by which 
birds are taken, consist in imitating their voices, 
or leading them by other means into situations 
where they become entrapped by nets or bird 
lime or otherwise. 
The pipe, or call, affords the most common 
means used to take great numbers of birds. This 
is done in the months of September and October. 
A thin wood is the spot chosen for this pur¬ 
pose. Under a tree, a little distant from the 
others, is erected a cabin, and there are only 
those branches left on the tree which are neces¬ 
sary for the placing of the bird lime which are 
supple twigs and are covered with bird lime. 
There are placed around the cabins avenues with 
twisted perches, which are also besmeared with 
bird lime. The bird catcher places himself in 
the cabin, and at sunrise and sunset imitates the 
cry of a small bird, calling the others to its 
assistance, for animals have also their cries to 
e.xpress their different passions, which are well 
known to each other. If a cry is made to imitate 
the owl, immediately different sorts of birds as¬ 
semble at the cry of their common enemy, and 
they are seen falling to the ground at every in¬ 
stant, their wings from the bird lime being of 
no use to them. The cries of those birds which 
are thus caught attract others, and great quanti¬ 
ties are in this manner taken. It is only during 
the night that the great and small owls are taken 
by counterfeiting the cry of the mouse. 
To take the lark, nets are spread, and about 
the middle of the net is placed a looking glass, 
to which a cord is attached, which upon being 
drawn, makes the glass turn round like the sails 
of a windmill. During the time that the sun 
shines, it is put in motion, its brilliancy attracts 
the larks, whose feet get entangled in the meshes 
of the nets. The clap net is also made use of 
during the night. This is a large slender net, 
which is supported at each end by two men upon 
long poles. They walk about the ground until 
they hear the larks, when they let it fall, and 
take by this means vast quantities. 
Waterfowl may be taken in great numbers 
by nets properly managed. The net for this pur¬ 
pose should be always made of the smallest and 
strongest pack thread that can be got. The 
meshes may be large, but the nets should be 
lined on both sides with other smaller nets, every 
mesh of which is to be about an inch and a 
half square, each way, that as the fowls strike 
either through them, or against them, the smaller 
may pass through the great meshes, and so 
streighten and entangle the fowl. 
[to be concluded.] 
Forest and Stream may be ordered from any news¬ 
dealer. Ask your dealer to supply you regularly. 
"'I'he pheasant does not easily resign his wild habits,’’ says Nicholson’s Encyclopedia. About ICO years after this 
was written wc find Silver and China pheasants domesticated .and sleeping on a cake of ice. 
Photograph copyrighted by \\'. F. Kendrick. 
