is the name given to the 

 numerous enemies of game birds, by 

 the English writers and game keepers. 

 Captain Maxwell, in his book on Par- 

 tridges, devotes a chapter to vermin and 

 the methods of its control, and the English 

 sporting magazines often give space to 

 stories of the destruction of game by its 

 enemies and the best means for preventing such loss. Until a 

 few years ago the word vermin was not mentioned in our sport- 

 ing literature, and few sportsmen realized the amount of game 

 destroyed annually by predaceous animals and the absolute 

 necessity for controlling them if we would continue to shoot. 

 Owen Jones, in "Ten Years of Game Keeping," says: "Let 

 the keeper look after the vermin and the game will look after 

 itself, is a saying which has stood the test of time." Fryer, 

 an authority on gray partridges, tells us the control of vermin 

 "is an all important matter and one that affects the stock 

 even more than the weather at hatching time." Macpherson, 

 in his book on the grouse, says it is necessary to supplement a 

 good supply of food for the grouse by waging war against its 

 four-footed and winged persecutors. Darwin believes that 

 if shooting were stopped in England there would be less game 

 than at present although hundreds of thousands of animals 

 are annually shot. All naturalists are aware that a large number 

 of the game birds and their eggs are destroyed by predaceous 

 animals every year, otherwise the game would soon overrun 

 the earth. The tendency to increase is tremendous. It is 



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