KEEPERS AND KEEPERING 443 



privation, and, if necessary, provide them with artificial food and grit. But 

 perhaps the most important duty in the winter is that of vermin inspection. 

 Whenever there is a fresh fall of snow the gamekeeper should be early on his 

 beat to search for the tracks of weasels, stoats, and foxes, and thus he will gain the 

 preliminary information necessary for the destruction of these dangerous pests. 



The months of February, March, and April put the gamekeeper's efficiency to 

 the test, for it is principally during those months that it is his duty to provide 

 his stock with food for future years. The good gamekeeper must be a Heather- 

 far-seeing man, who, like the forester, lives not merely for the morrow ^"'"•i™^- 

 but for the day after, and he must burn his moor with a view to improved results 

 many years ahead.^ 



It will be said that the various duties enumerated above represent a far 

 greater volume of work than any man can be expected to perform. It may be 

 admitted that the average gamekeeper is not expected to do so much, but this is 

 rather the fault of the system than of the man, for there is nothing in the fore- 

 going list which may not be overtaken in the course of a year of three hundred 

 and sixty-five days, for even Sundays count where game-preserving is concerned. 

 It is true that for heather-burning, bracken-cutting, and moor-draining the keeper 

 will require temporary assistance ; but this assistance should be given ungrudgingly, 

 for the results will yield a handsome return upon the outlay incurred. 



Before leaving the subject it is only fair to say that gamekeepers as a class 

 represent one of the finest types of the community ; the healthy, open-air life 

 they have to live seems to develop in them the primitive virtues of 



The t^ame- 



honesty, loyalty, and content, while the responsibility of their position keeper as 

 leads them to exercise their intellectual faculties for the furtherance of 

 the interests committed to their charge. If they have a fault, it is an old- 

 fashioned conservatism, tinged with professional pride, which makes them slow 

 to adopt new ideas ; but once they have tested new methods, and found them 

 good, all prejudice is cast to the winds, and they become ardent followers of the 

 cause of reform. 



Vermin and Vermin-killing. 



By a misuse of the term "balance of nature" an argument is upheld 

 in favour of the preservation of birds and beasts that prey upon The 



.1 n T /-^i balance of 



the Red Grouse. nature. 



' Vide chap, xxviii. pp. 392 et seq. 



