240 PHEASANTS 



praised by every writer on natural history, 

 with strong condemnation of the keeper 

 ignorant enough of his business to look 

 on the kestrel as an enemy to his game. 

 Yet when the writer took counsel of 

 some of the most intelligent men en- 

 gaged in the business of rearing pheasants 

 to be found in the country, they were 

 almost unanimous in expressing their 

 opinion that they would far rather see 

 a sparrow-hawk than a kestrel among 

 their coops. 



The utmost we can fairly ask of our 

 keepers, unless we give them direct orders 

 to spare certain birds, not because they 

 are innocuous to game, but because they 

 are desirable in other ways, is to make 

 up for a certain stringency of law, very 

 necessary to the welfare of the rearing- 

 field, by a corresponding latitude for the 

 rest of the year, and to destroy nothing 

 on suspicion. 



Above all, let no one who wishes to be 

 thought reasonable try to tell an observ- 

 ant keeper that kestrels, weasels, and all 



