90 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



having received permission from the owner to go 

 where I liked: I also knew the keepers and (like a 

 fool) believed they would carry out the instructions of 

 their master. I informed them that a pair of hobby- 

 hawks were breeding in a clump of trees on the edge 

 of the park, and asked them to be careful not to mistake 

 them for sparrowhawks. At the same time I told 

 them that a pair of Montagu's harriers were con- 

 stantly to be seen at a lonely marshy spot in the woods, 

 a mile from the park ; I had been watching them for 

 three days at that spot and believed they were nesting. 

 I also told them where a pair of great spotted wood- 

 peckers were breeding in the woods. They promised 

 to " keep an eye " on the hawks, and I daresay they 

 did, seeing that both hobbys and harriers had vanished 

 in the course of the next few days. But they would 

 not promise to save the woodpeckers : one of the 

 under-keepers had been asked by a lady to get her a 

 few pretty birds to put in a glass case, and the head 

 keeper told him he could have these woodpeckers. 



Did I in these cases inform the owner and the shoot- 

 ing-tenant of what had happened ? No, and for a 

 very good reason. Nothing ever comes of such telling 

 except a burst of rage on the part of the owner against 

 all keepers and all interfering persons, which lasts for 

 an hour or so, and then all goes on as before. I have 

 never known a keeper to be discharged except for the 

 one offence of dealing in game and eggs on his own 

 account. In everything else he has a free hand ; if it 

 is not given him he takes it, and there is nothing he 



