It is the keeper's lot to make the best of many a bad job. If he could
have his way, all underwood would be chopped and stacked in neat
piles by the middle of April, so that his nesting birds might enjoy
undisturbed peace in his woods. In olden days, all underwood was cut,
worked up, and cleared off the ground by certain fixed dates so that
the new shoots of the shorn stumps had full measure of light and air.
But the dates are no longer remembered, and the work is carried on
into early summer. The birds benefit in some ways. Pheasants find the
long rows of felled underwood very attractive as nesting-places, and
many pairs of partridges decide to give them a trial. Pheasants and
partridges prefer to nest in dead material--it is warmer and drier than
greenstuff, does not hold dew or rain, and cannot grow, and so possibly
upset the nest. Dry leaves are driven by the wind beneath the rows of
wood, so nesting material is plentiful. And there is no dense canopy
of leaves to shut out the sun that is so loved by the sitting birds.
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