PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



portant items for protection, whilst the various devices 

 and contrivances adopted for such purposes are innumer- 

 able, consequently each keeper has his own methods of 

 protection. 



The illegality of the use of the pole-trap in Great 

 Britain removes once and for all this appliance from the 

 keepers' weapons of offence, or rather defence, against 

 feathered foes. A question that may present itself to the 

 mind of a thoughtful reader is concerning the relative 

 superiority in point of damage done by winged and 

 ground vermin, and the only answer the author can give 

 — in which he believes the majority will support him— is 

 that the ravages of both are about equally divided. Amongst 

 the former, the principal offenders are : — 



Magpies, jays, hawks, falcons, hooded crows, rooks, 

 owls, egg-eating Pheasants, jackdaws. 



Among the latter, foxes and badgers, cats and dogs, 

 stoats and weasels, rats, adders, hedgehogs. 



There is one enemy with which keepers are unfor- 

 tunately only too well acquainted, and that is that biped 

 Homo Vulgaris, in other words Man ; and as the eggs of 

 the Pheasant are a decided delicacy, together with the 

 fact that they have a certain amount of pecuniary value 

 attached to them, seems to have a peculiar fascination, 

 and the spirit of covetousness not uncommonly develops 

 into one of appropriation. Fortunately such offences are 

 not justifiable, or rather excusable, on the plea of klep- 

 tomania. The theft of eggs by labourers and others has 

 been dealt with elsewhere. 



A short account of some of the game-preserver's enemies, 

 together with the methods adopted for dealing with such 

 pests, may not be out of place — in fact, it constitutes such 

 an essential part of the Pheasant-preserver's work, that 



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