THE CAT. 381 



Pheasants must be fed, if they are in large numbers, and for 

 this purpose the wheat or barley used is better in the ear. 

 A small stack should be made loosely in the covert, and here 

 the pheasants will work at the grain, and earn their food, 

 which all animals should do. Sparrows and other small 

 birds get their share, but they are unable to pull out the ear 

 from the stack, which the pheasant soon learns to do. 

 Partridges require no feeding, but they must be carefully 

 protected from the attacks of vermin. This will form the 

 subject of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 

 VEKMIN AND THE MODES OF DESTROYING THEM. 



THE CAT MARTEN FOX POLECAT STOAT WEASEL RAT HEDGEHOG 



EAGLE KITE PEREGRINE FALCON BUZZARD MARSH HARRIER 



HEN HARRIER MONTAGUE'S HARRIER SPARROW HAWK HOBBY 



MERLIN KESTREL BARN OWL BROWN OWL RAVEN CROW 



HOODED CROW JACKDAW MAGPIE JAY TRAPS AND TRAPPING 



THE VERMIN TERRIER POISON, AND THE MODE OP LAYING IT. 



THE keeper who wishes thoroughly to understand his busi- 

 ness will take care to make himself master of the habits and 

 haunts of the various kinds of vermin infesting, or likely to 

 infest, his beat, for without this he will always be likely to 

 be foiled in his endeavours to discover and destroy them. 

 Before, then, I discuss the methods of trapping, poisoning, 

 or shooting vermin, I will give a short account of each, 

 beginning with the worst enemy to game of all 



THE CAT (Fdis domestica). 



The cat is familiar to all of us as she appears at the fire- 

 side; but when she takes to the game preserves she is very 

 different in her habits, and even in appearance she has 

 assumed more the wary look and fierce eye of the tiger than 

 the calm and peaceful expression of the parlour pet. The 

 moment a cat takes to a covert she is doomed, for war must 



