96 IlEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



it was marvellous to see the quantity of winged ver- 

 min flying from wood to wood, or soaring in the air : 

 kites, buzzard hawks, that worst of all winged vermin 

 the sparrow-hawk, kestrels, hobbys, carrion crows, 

 ravens, magpies, and jays, were passing every mo- 

 ment, and I saw a fund of useful amusement in de- 

 stroying them and preserving what few heads of game 

 there were till hunting commenced. How a head of 

 same contrived to exist with the fine show of foxes I 

 found there, combined with the smaller vermin, I can 

 scarcely comprehend, for there were not three rabbits 

 in the whole place for them to feed on. The farmer's 

 hen-roosts from the foxes, and their broods of 

 chickens, young ducks, and eggs from other vermin, 

 suffered in proportion. The most extraordinary 

 amount of damage was done by the jays; along the 

 headlands abutting the great woods, the ears of wheat 

 over acre after acre were cut from the stalk at the 

 top and carried clean off, so that it really looked as 

 if the wheat-stalks had been cleanly clipped as they 

 stood by a scissars. On seeing this amount of vermin 

 and these depredations, which the farmers complained 

 not of, because the jays had no responsible owner, I 

 beheld before me not only an amusement in killing 

 them, but ^Z^o, as I thought, a means of being service- 

 able to the tenantry ; so, rising by seven in the morning 

 to inspect the progress of the kennel, the whole day 

 found me given to the woods, returning perhaps in time 

 for a few casts with the net, to catch a dish of white 

 fish for dinner. 



I soon taught my keeper, William Savage, new 

 and sharper ideas, giving him to understand tbat 

 when he came to report to me that he had seen a 

 marten cat, stoat, or weasel, he was not to drawl 



