5<d The Gamekeeper at Home. 



advertised in the papers. He mixes it himself, and 

 likes no one prying about to espy his secret, though 

 in reality his success is due to watchful care and not 

 to any particular nostrum. The most favourable 

 spot for rearing is a small level meadow, if possible 

 without furrows, which has been fed off close to the 

 ground and is situated high and dry, and yet well 

 sheltered with wood all round. Damp is a great 

 enemy of the brood, and long grass wet with dew 

 in the early morning sometimes proves fatal if the 

 delicate young birds are allowed to drag themselves 

 through it. 



Besides the coops, here and there bushes, cut for 

 the purpose, are piled in tolerably large heaps. The 

 use of these is for the broods to run under if a hawk 

 appears in the sky ; and it is amusing to watch how 

 soon the little creatures learn to appreciate this shelter. 

 In the spring the greater part of the keeper's time is 

 occupied in this way : he spends hours upon hours in 

 the hundred and one minutiae which ensure success. 

 This breeding-time is the great anxiety of the year : on 

 it all the shooting depends. He shakes his head if you 

 hint that perhaps it would save trouble to purchase 

 the pheasants ready for shooting from the dealers who 

 now make a business of supplying them for the battue. 

 He looks upon such a practice as the ruin of all true 



