To shoot while there are still many leaves on the underwood and trees,
and while there is a full muster of pheasants, or to wait until there
are fewer leaves and fewer pheasants--that often is the question. For
there are many coverts in which pheasants will not stay after the fall
of the leaf. Then the shooting man who does not own the coverts to
which his birds will betake themselves must make the best of things,
and be content to bring down more leaves than pheasants, and often
nothing but leaves. What with the showering of leaves and the crashing
of shot-pruned boughs and dead wood, he may imagine that a pheasant
must be an extra heavy bird--only to find that not a feather has been
touched. To shoot pheasants among a crowd of leafy oaks is no simple
matter--it is more difficult than to shoot a rocketer in the open
valley. One thing may be said for this aggravating pastime; it teaches
the slow shooter to be quick.
* * * * *
"Cocks only"--to compromise
There are good reasons for shooting coverts for the first time before
the end of November, apart from the fear of a leakage of pheasants.
A sack of corn a day will quickly swell a bill to uncomfortable
proportions. Unshot coverts also mean that the whole time of keepers
and watchers is taken up, with a string of awkward consequences. Thus,
little can be done to thin the rabbits, for fear of disturbing the
other game in the coverts. Each night some of the hares go out, never
to return. Hunting must be curtailed in self-defence. Then again,
neighbours may be shooting, and it is very certain that what goes
into your neighbour's bag cannot go into yours. The best compromise
between shooting in woods still leafy and waiting for the sporting
Christmas pheasant to soar far above the tops of the bare trees,
is to shoot "cocks only" at the first covert shoots. This may be a
perplexing plan to those not accustomed to it--either they include a
good many hens, or they let off a good many cocks which they mistake
for hens. It is a plan to make the nervous man shoot his worst. And the
keeper, as a rule, will not be found to favour it, unless the guns are
discriminating and good, and appreciate sport more than bag. But sooner
or later the day of "cocks only" must come--why should it not come at
the beginning and be done with?
* * * * *