Game coverts may be divided into two kinds, natural and artificial—natural when the woods are kept sufficiently thin to admit of the free growth of bramble, bracken or other native vegetation; and artificial when the planting of such shrubs as are suitable for underwood is resorted to. Natural game coverts, which, by most sportsmen, are considered superior to those artificially formed, can only exist where the plantations are kept well and regularly thinned, so as to admit abundance of both light and air—the two principal requisites for the successful growth of natural underwood. Generally speaking, the formation of natural coverts has seldom to be helped, although occasionally it is found necessary to assist Nature by the sowing of such seeds as those of gorse, broom, etc., in the thinner and more open portions of the woodlands. This may, however, be considered an exception to the rule, as where the woods are kept sufficiently thin, spontaneous undergrowth is usually pretty abundant, and requires neither care nor management, beyond preventing its too free incursions along the margins of roads and shooting drives. Where, however, bare patches do occur, the sowing of seed may be relied upon as not only a speedy but most effectual method of increasing the cover. Where seeds are intended to be sown, the soil should be dug over, and all hard clods or lumps broken down, and the whole made smooth and fine with a rake. The seeds may be sown in spring, and afterwards covered over with hardwood branches as a preservative against the depredations of small birds and game. The best natural game coverts are those composed of bramble, gorse, heath, hazel, holly, blackthorn, elder, blackberry, bracken or the stronger growing grasses, these being arranged according to merit, and each possessing some peculiar feature, specially recommending it for planting in certain soils, altitudes or situations.