72 THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF GAME 



Mr. Owen Jones, an Oxford graduate who selected 

 gamekeeping as his profession, says : " 'Let the keeper 

 look after the vermin and the game will look after itself,' 

 is a saying which has stood the test of time. There is 

 no more interesting phase of a keeper's work than the 

 circumvention of vermin. Dull indeed would it be on a 

 shoot where there is absolutely no vermin ; one might as 

 well use a gun which mechanically prevented missing. 

 Though I had to do a lot of game shooting, I enjoyed 

 the all around sport with vermin better. Often have I 

 thought that I would like to get a keeper's berth where 

 vermin teemed. I do not mean a place swarming with 

 rats and rooks, but holding a good old fashioned stock 

 of all sorts of vermin."* 



The naturalists are right, no doubt, in saying that 

 many species of vermin are beneficial and that they do 

 not do as much harm as some gamekeepers imagine they 

 do. Laws, however, which prohibit the killing of game 

 enemies should not apply to game farms and preserves. 

 The matter of the control of harmful species should be 

 left- to the game breeder. It would be quite as logical to 

 say that the shepherd must not kill the wolves which de- 

 stroy his flocks as it is to say that the breeder of game 

 must not control the enemies which kill his game. 



We should remember that it is easy to distinguish 

 what game enemies are injurious and that it is not neces- 

 sary or even possible to absolutely destroy even the most 

 harmful species. This I regard as fortunate, since I enjoy 

 seeing an occasional sly fox about and the graceful fal- 

 con sailing overhead or striking his quarry. It is an easy 



*"Ten Years of Game Keeping." By Owen Jones. London, Edwin 

 Arnold, 1909. Longmans, Green & Co., New York. 



