58 THE NEW FOREST 



Full instructions for all the keepers were 

 carefully drawn out ; each man had his printed and 

 signed copy, and realised that a deliberate breach 

 of those instructions meant instant dismissal. In 

 compiling this list of rules and orders, I had in 

 view the object of preserving all the fauna of the 

 Forest of every kind not merely, as gamekeepers 

 are apt to think, game birds and ground game 

 only. In a great wild National Park, where for 

 many reasons very high preservation of game is 

 neither possible nor desirable, there is room for 

 every kind of wild animal, and I had to make 

 my men understand that I desired the same care 

 taken of the nest of a buzzard or a fern owl as 

 of a pheasant. As to these instructions, I took 

 the advice of such able sportsmen and naturalists 

 as the late Lord Lilford and Professor Alfred 

 Newton. Special rules were made as to particular 

 care being taken of the rarer birds likely to 

 occur, and orders were given that every instance 

 of a strange visitor was to be reported to the 

 Deputy Surveyor at once. And there was 

 to be no killing of any birds save a few 

 scheduled ones. All bird's-nesting was to be 

 rigidly prevented. Of course these were rather 

 novel ideas to some of the men, but, after a 

 change or two had been made among them, they 

 all settled down well to their work, and in some 



