220 The Keeper's Tree. 



trapped. I do not intend to give any instructions respecting the art 

 of trapping or killing vermin in any way. Every gamekeeper who 

 knows his business, knows, probably, far more than I do how this 

 is to be done. I only wish to point out the distinguishing 

 differences between one species and another, and to give him a hint 

 as to what specimens will pay him far better to carry to the nearest 

 bird-stuffer or collector, than to hang up to rot on the branches of 

 his " keeper's tree." But my observations must necessarily be very 

 short. We will first slightly notice the four-footed vermin peculiar 

 to the British Isles, and the list is meagre enough. 



There can be no doubt at all that the man who preserves foxes 

 must pay for it by his game ; for even supposing, as we are told, 

 that a fox does not molest game and poultry in its own immediate 

 vicinity, still, others from a distance will invade the preserves ; and 

 there cannot be a doubt, in my opinion, that tlie fox is the greatest 

 enemy to the game preserver at aU seasons of the year. The 

 English preserves are so well stocked, and, moreover, are so full of 

 rabbits, that the damage done by " Old Charley " is not so apparent j 

 but in our Swedish forests, which swarm with foxes, the damage 

 they do to the game is incalculable. We have good proofs of this 

 in early spring, when the snow first melts. During the winter the 

 black grouse huddle together in small packs, and bury themselves 

 under the snow, leaving little air-holes to breathe through. How 

 long they can lie in this way, or how long they can subsist \^'ithout 

 food, is, I believe, not rightly known, or whetlier they leave the 

 hole to return to it ; but as soon as the snow melts, we can always 

 see by the large heap of droppings, often more than a peck, where 

 such a hiding-place has been, and, when the ground is clear, the 

 bones and wings of the birds scattered about so many of these 

 burrowing places, prove that they form the principal larders of the 

 hundreds of foxes that prowl about our forests throughout the 

 winter. I do not believe that the capercailly ever burrows in the 

 snow like the black grouse. 



In Sweden, during the winter, many thousand foxes are annually 

 shot for the sake of the skin, which is worth about half a guinea j 



