VERMIN. 147 



banditti must be far in excess of that taken by all 

 the other vermin which are to be found in a game 

 preserve. They exist in such numbers that no 

 exposed nest is safe, but, like the Rats, they, 

 paradoxical as it may seem, appear to thrive and 

 increase by the yearly killing process. 



The Mole is not classed amongst the keeper's 

 vermin, but the farmer classes him as such, he 

 being the only animal of ferae nature that he 

 has to pay a man to destroy. This is one of 

 the evils of over game-preserving, and the kill- 

 ing of the Owls which feed on them. Although 

 regularly trapped and destroyed in the cultivated 

 fields, in the waste lands and woods they are 

 allowed to multiply ad libitum, their natural 

 enemies being shot. It is said by those dis- 

 posed to see good in everything, that what the 

 farmer calls a pest is really, to him, a useful 

 animal draining his land with his subterra- 

 nean tunnels ; but many of these " runs," if ex- 

 amined, will be found too near the surface and 

 too level to do any good in that way; they 



