2 8o ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



of a keeper's evidence are embodied in their 

 Report : 



' Why did you kill the kestrel ? Well, it was an 

 enemy of the game, of course, and that is why I 

 killed it. How long have you been a gamekeeper ? 

 Six or seven years. How often have you seen a 

 kestrel take game ? Many a time. What kind of 

 game ? Young pheasants. Had you many young 

 pheasants at West Buccleuch ? No. Then why did 

 you kill the kestrel ? Because they will kill young 

 grouse. Did you ever see them take young grouse ? 

 No. Did anybody of your acquaintance ever see 

 them take young grouse? No ; but I have heard of 

 their taking young grouse. Would you believe a man 

 if he said that he saw a kestrel taking young grouse ? 

 Yes, if he said it I would. Any man ? Yes, if he 

 was not drunk.' 



Against this may be set the evidence of the head- 

 keeper at Drumlanrig, where kestrels, as well as owls, 

 are preserved by order of the Duke of Buccleuch 

 that in his experience of over thirty years he thought 

 that he could only remember twice seeing a kestrel 

 take a young pheasant. Buzzards, which on the 

 occasion of a former plague of voles, assembled in 

 numbers almost as great as those of the short-eared 



