ENEMIES OF THE GAME-REARER 



The eggs are a pale emerald green, more rarely whitish, 

 and generally from six to eight in number, but occasionally 

 nine. They are mottled with irregular olive markings and 

 dots of a similar colour. In some instances most of the 

 markings are at one end. The male bird takes his part in 

 sitting on the eggs, which relieves the monotony of the 

 maternal duties. If the first nest is destroyed before the 

 young are hatched, the pair will probably build another one. 

 In any case a new nest is built every season, and the best 

 plan is to destroy the birds before they have an opportunity 

 of perpetuating the species. 



The best bait for a Magpie is the nest together with 

 the eggs of either a blackbird or thrush quite early on in 

 the season, the first nests of these eggs being a piece 

 de resistance, but as soon as ever they become common, 

 " Maggie " has very little inclination for earlier epicurean 

 views. A very good bait is the rabbit's head with the eye 

 exposed placed upon the plate of a well-concealed trap. One 

 ingenious keeper has used as a deadly bait, sheep's eyes, and 

 a number of these can be obtained and kept for almost an in- 

 definite time in ice. The eye is sown up in a piece of rabbit's 

 skin, with a hole cut in it, just sufficient to show the bright 

 portion of it, and this is then placed on the plate of the trap. 



Some gamekeepers scatter a few hens' eggs about, though 

 Magpies look upon these with disfavour to begin with, and 

 fight shy of them at first, but familiarity breeds contempt, 

 and when they have had a good taste, the best plan is to set 

 one on the foot of a trap. Another keeper used an old 

 sparrow-hawk's nest, and dyed some bantam eggs a green 

 colour, and then mottled these with darker markings. This 

 nest was fixed on the top of a tall bush, together with a 

 trap carefully concealed, and the device resulted in a large 

 number of captures. 



N 193 



