Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: :: 



Vol. VI. ] 



SUMMER, 1915. 



[No. 6. 



The Keeper's Opportunity. 



Last autumn, when the call to arms 

 summoned the manhood of the nation 

 from country house, moor, and preserve, 

 to camp and trench and the stern firing- 

 line of War, it was said in half -earnest, 

 half -jest, that the " feathered game " 

 would enjoy respite and safety. Those 

 sportsmen who were not themselves 

 going out with the Expeditionary Force 

 would be engaged in duties pertaining 

 to the terrible struggle for Britain's life 

 and liberty ; and the Grouse, the Part- 

 ridge, and the Long-tail would know 

 neither beaters nor drive nor battue, 

 nor murder nor sudden death. 



To a great extent the expectation was 

 realised. Country-house shooting was on 

 a small scale only, usually for the thinning 

 of the birds and on behalf of hospital 

 dietary. 



The person aggrieved by this state of 

 things has no doubt been the gamekeeper ; 

 and in articles which have appeared this 

 spring in certain papers, the keeper has 

 been urged to revenge himself for dull 

 times with the pheasants by an extra - 

 virulent attack on the non-game birds 

 of the preserve. The restraining hand 

 of the master has been removed : the 

 landowner, who had perhaps ?een to it 

 that some care was exercised for the 

 preservation of rare and harmless birds, 

 and who recognized that some degree of 

 humanity might be practised even in the 

 case of " feathered vermin," has been 

 absent or burdened with an intolerable 



weight of anxiety. The time was favour- 

 able for an orgy of trapping. 



" We have heard," writes a contributor 

 to one journal, " from several authentic 

 sources that the vermin-trap trade has 

 been exceptionally good this season, which 

 goes to show that gamekeepers are taking 

 advantage of their unusual opportunity to 

 clear off these pests. Trapping is not 

 likely to be confined to the first half of the 

 year, which it generally has to be under 

 stress of work, but will go on continuously." 



The " pests " openly regarded as such 

 include of course the Jay, Magpie, Rook, 

 Crow, Jackdaw, and every species of 

 Hawk and Falcon ; no one imagines that 

 the Owls and Nightjar escape, and the 

 water-keeper includes the Kingfisher and 

 any other bird that takes fish. The trap, 

 moreover, is no respecter of species. 

 The cruel pole-trap not infrequently 

 caught Cuckoo and Thrush and Starling, 

 and the thousand and one gins hidden 

 away among the pleasant greenery of 

 many a woodland do not fail to snap 

 their steel teeth on any bird that comes 

 in contact with them. 



There is no intention in the present 

 paper of discussing the sense or the 

 righteousness or the desirability of de- 

 stroying in game-preserves any or all 

 birds which the gamekeeper, in his 

 wisdom and his ignorance, considers 

 inimical to the breeding of pheasants, 

 though there is very much to be said on 

 that subject. But no protest can be too 

 strong against the employment for this 



