272 Poachers and Poaching. 



the weather washes away all scent, and the 

 " well-trap " is a wholesale engine of capture. 

 The rabbits of course are taken alive. These 

 the keeper stretches across his knee, dislocating 

 the spine. English rabbits are degenerating in 

 size, and the introduction of some of the conti- 

 nental varieties would be beneficial. With the 

 rabbits in autumn great quantities of wood- 

 pigeons are sent away, the birds at this time 

 becoming exceedingly plump and fat. An 

 almost incredible number of acorns may be 

 found in the crop of a single bird when the 

 former have fallen. 



These are a few of the keeper's duties. He 

 himself has a russet, weather - beaten face, 

 bounded by silvery hair. He might stand for a 

 picture of a highly-idealised member of his class. 

 So secluded is his cottage that he locks the door 

 but once a year, and that on Christmas Eve. 

 He can remember when there was larger game 

 than now, when badgers and wild cats were not 

 uncommon. One of his ancestors was an 

 inveterate deer-stealer, as the parish books show. 

 Then the red-deer roamed almost wild on the 

 fells. To-day he has but one regret that he 

 was not contemporary with the wolf, the wild 

 boar, and the bear. Of these in Britain he has 

 just read an account, together with the vast 

 primitive forests through which they roamed. 



