THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF GAME 77 



for improvement in the attitude of keepers. However, 

 I am certain that since education means enlightenment 

 and modern preservation and shooting demand keepers 

 of better education than formerly, the time is not far dis- 

 tant when all keepers will be men of education, and, 

 therefore, of enlightenment. In this way, and in no 

 other, will come about a rational discrimination in the 

 matter of creatures now so often slaughtered indiscrimi- 

 nately as vermin. What the thinking keeper of today 

 resents is that all keepers should be tarred with the sins 

 of individuals, but so long as the world lasts gamekeep- 

 ers will continue to complain that there is no visible end 

 to the vermin, whether it be clothed in feathers or fur." 



I have quoted the observations of Dr. Macpherson and 

 Mr. Jones at some length, since this matter of the control 

 of vermin is of much importance in America just now, 

 where many game preserves are springing into existence 

 in every State in the Union. We may as well start right 

 and learn to distinguish between the game enemies which 

 should be controlled and those which are comparatively 

 harmless. The reader should remember, however, at all 

 times that there is a difference in predaceous birds of the 

 same species and that the same species may act differ- 

 ently in different places or under different circumstances. 



I have shot certain hawks, which are regarded as more 

 beneficial than harmful, when they were in the act of 

 taking game birds, and Mr. Thompson, a skilled keeper, 

 writing for The Amateur Sportsman,* tells of perform- 

 ances of the little sparrow hawk on his rearing field near 

 Chicago, Illinois, which would warrant the control of this 

 bird in the way he describes. 



The Amateur Sportsman, June, 1910. 



