The Keeper's Tree, 223 



parlour on the fat of the land, and took his afternoon's doze in the 

 winter as regularly as any old octogenarian on a cushion provided 

 for him before the parlour fire. Now, he surely had no business to 

 stray away from home — at least, after game. However, one day 

 we missed him, and there was great lamentation, for he was a nice 

 sleek-coated, round, well-fed cat, of a monstrous size, and a general 

 favourite. About a week after his mysterious disappearance T 

 chanced to pass by the keeper's tree, and there hung my old 

 favourite, "grinning a ghastly grin," a warning to all other evil- 

 doers. 



These are about all the quadrupeds that the British keeper has 

 to fear, except, perhaps, the lurching cur, and if one of these falls 

 by the keeper's gun (as undoubtedly hundreds do in the course of 

 every year) I suppose he is left to rot in a ditch, for I never recollect 

 seeing a dog in any one of the scores of these museums which I 

 have examined. 



Both the squirrel and the hedgehog are accused of stealing eggs : 

 I can't say, for my own part, that ever I caught one in the act of 

 "petty larceny," and I fancy this is a very unusual occurrence. 



The list of feathered vermin is more numerous. 



The eagle is never very likely to grace the branches of the 

 keeper's tree. This is a bird which is rarely killed in any of the 

 cultivated districts of Great Britain, and if by chance one should fall, 

 the most unscientific keeper would scarcely decorate his own 

 museum with so grand a prize. I need only obser\-e that of the 

 two species peculiar to Britain the golden eagle is the rarest and 

 finest, and may be known at a glance by the legs, which are 

 feathered down to the toes, and the centre half of the tail being at 

 all ages dark brown. The root of the tail in the young bird is 

 white, in the old bird grey. In the white-tailed or sea eagle half 

 of the legs and feet are bare, and the tail in the old bird is white, 

 in the young bird speckled throughout its whole length. 



Few keepers are able to distinguish a falcon from a hawk j and 

 the best marks I can give them are, that in the falcons the tail is 

 level, or nearly so, with the ch).sed wincfs : in the hawks, of which 



