Pheasants Mysteriously Disappear. 209 



the blackleg keeper gradually works his employer 

 into a state of intense irritation, meantime reaping 

 the reward of the incorruptible guardian and shrewd 

 upright servitor. 



At the same time, in the haze of suspicion he has 

 created, the rascal finds a cloak for his own misdeeds. 

 These poachers, trespassers, gipsies, foxes, and refrac- 

 tory tenants afford a useful excuse to account for the 

 comparative scarcity of game. What on earth has 

 become of the birds, and where the dickens are the 

 hares ? asks the angry proprietor. In the spring he 

 recollects being shown by the keeper, with modest 

 pride, some hundreds of young pheasants, flourishing 

 exceedingly. Now he finds the broods have strangely 

 dwindled, and he is informed that these enemies 

 against whom all along he has been warned have 

 made short work of them. If this explanation seems 

 scarcely sufficient, there is always some inexplicable 

 disease to bear the blame : the birds had been going 

 on famously when suddenly they were seized by a 

 mysterious epidemic which decimated their numbers. 



All this is doubly annoying, because, in addition 

 to the loss of anticipated sport, there has been an exor- 

 bitant expenditure. The larger the number of young 

 broods of pheasants early in the year the better for 

 the dishonest keeper, who has more chances of in- 



P 



