The 'bush'
is a mass of thorn bushes fixed in a frame and drawn by a horse; it acts
like a light harrow, and leaves the meadow in strips like the pile of
green velvet, stroked in narrow bands, one this way, one that, laying
the grass blades in the directions it travels. Solitary work of this
kind--for it requires but one man--is very favourable to observation.
When the proper time arrives the searcher knows within a little where
the nest must be, and has but a small space to beat.
The pheasant being so large a bird, its motions are easy to watch; and
the nest is speedily found, because, being in the hedge or under bushes,
there is a definite place in which to look, instead of the broad surface
of the field. Pheasants will get out of the preserves in the breeding
season and wander into the mounds, so that the space the keeper has to
range is then enlarged threefold. Both pheasants and partridges are
frequently killed on their nests; when the eggs are hard the birds
remain to the last moment, and are often knocked over.
Besides poachers, the eggs have to run the chance of being destroyed by
carrion crows, and occasionally by rooks. Rooks, though generally
cleanly feeders, will at times eat almost anything, from a mussel to a
fledgeling bird. Magpies and jays are accused of being equally dangerous
enemies of eggs and young birds, and so too are snakes.
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