14(i ir/77/ NATFUE AX I) A CAME HA. 



sticks wlien sot in position bear to that nunioral 

 when written in the old-fasliioned way. In encom- 

 passing the destruction of Stoats and Weasels, I 

 have always been far more successfid with the tiesli 

 of a Blackbird as bait than tliat of eitlier a Grouse, 

 Plover, Starling, or Rabbit. 



Hedgehogs are ruthlessly shiin l)y gamekeepers 

 on account of their mischievous habits amongst 

 the eggs and young of Partridges and Pheasants. 

 They are easily cauglit in figure- of-f our traps. 



As an instance of the vexatious losses game- 

 keepers whose beats are near large Rookeries 

 suffer, especially in dry springs, my Ijrother had 

 a Pheasant's nest containing seventeen eggs — doubt- 

 less the production of two females — shown him in 

 i\rull in 1896 by a couple of gamekeepers, who were 

 naturally proud of the clutch. Happening to jjass 

 the place a few days afterwards he noticed three 

 or four Rooks fly np from the nest and alight on 

 an adjoining tree. Upon examining it he found 

 only three eggs of the seventeen remaining intact. 



I used to help a Yorkshire gamekeeper to dis- 

 sect Rooks which he shot and poisoned in the 

 spring on his moor, which in droughty weather 

 they would ily nine or ten miles to visit, and have 

 a very vivid recollection of his pardonable rage 

 when we foinid pieces of the shell of Grouse eggs 

 in one or two of them. 



On one occasion I watched a nund)cr of Pooks 

 pull the nearly-fi edged young ones out of a l)hu-k- 

 bird's nest situated in a large hole under the top 

 ^' tlu'ough " of a dry stone wall close to Kii'kby 

 Stephen in Westmorland. 



Althouiih Rooks are very interest! ii<;- birds, I am 

 sorry to say that T regard them under ccTtain con- 

 ditions as little less mischievous llian ( *arrion (Vows. 



