Winged Vermin Taking Crows and Rooks. 457 



whether they be at rest on the trees or passing over in flight. 

 There are very often small clumps of trees of one sort or 

 another situate in or near the centre of permanent pasture 

 fields ; such are most fruitful situations close to which to 

 set some gins, which, if the ground beneath be easily ob- 

 servable from the tops of the trees, may be placed about 

 a dead rabbit, pegged down near the roots ; but if, on the 

 other hand, the foliage be thick, the best position is in the 

 most conspicuous spot some ten or a dozen yards from the 

 outside limit to which the branches extend. 



Wherever there be a gate, or even an apology for one, 

 consisting of a gapway jammed full of a combination of 

 what are mostly called brambles, the near neighbourhood 

 of the same where it opens, or should open, on the field, 

 is always a good place, and one that may well be taken 

 advantage of, more especially if the furze-pig be the bait 

 employed ; while a nest of eggs neatly arranged on the top 

 of an adjacent portion of the hedgerow, devoid of bushes, 

 is equally likely to bring the crows into the gins set about 

 for them. Within a plantation the spots chosen must be 

 of the same open nature, and if there be any position 

 where the trees, for some reason, have refused to grow, and 

 are of but a few feet high, many a spot may be selected 

 and provided in the way we advocate ; for if there be a 

 place a crow has a weakness for, such as we mention is 

 the one, and any gins put there with a dead rabbit as bait 

 are by no means uncertain of effecting a catch. The 

 drives for sporting purposes are much visited by crows, and 

 wherever a conspicuous part exists, the birds, when passing 

 or circling over in search of food, are sure to give it a 



