322 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



as the gape worm, after the wont of Nematode worms, makes a 

 " host " of some worm or mollusc, it is important that the coops 

 should not be in damp situations, and, more important still, that 

 all bodies of dead birds should be burnt. Then there is ants' 

 " e gg s " collecting to be done ; the gentle to be reared ; the fox 

 and sparrowhawk to be defeated, and many a small duty that the 

 day's work brings which we have no time to notice here. 



When the birds are run off into the coverts they still need a 

 careful eye. Apart from the regular feeding, corn stacks should 

 be placed at points in the woods, and the keeper, as he goes his 

 round in the morning, will be able to tell within a little whether he 

 is losing birds or no. He must not leave these things to anyone 

 else ; he must see to them himself. He may find that the wood 

 pigeons are stealing most of his maize, that a stoat is running the 

 bank, or a strayed cat living in the covert. They must be 

 stopped, and this brings us to the question of trapping. 



The keeper who is not an accomplished trapper is of little use, 

 for trapping forms one-half of his business. Cats, rats, rabbits, 

 stoats, all have to be taken by a different method ; the cat in a 

 trap bushed and baited, the rat in an unbaited trap concealed in a 

 run, the rabbit in a wire, the stoat in a drain pipe, and so on. 

 The trap is the gamekeeper's weapon, and not the gun. Indeed, 

 it is quite an open question whether he should ever carry a gun 

 at all. 



That keeper who was not blinded by prejudice, and who was 

 not a slave to the common habit of generalizing from a single 

 instance, would come very soon I venture to believe to class 

 together his enemies, the vermin, under two heads in his own 

 mind : 



