66 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



quick to suspect danger and scent an enemy, 

 its instinct prompting it not only to save itself, 

 but also to give warning to its owners, that they 

 may do likewise. I have known a whole gang 

 of poachers broken up for the season merely by 

 the loss of their dog, and thus keepers are al- 

 ways death on dogs, so it should not seem cruel 

 if they shoot all strange dogs found in the 

 covers. 



It was a bright moonlight night, and I sat in 

 this old saw pit for about two hours and a half 

 without seeing or hearing anything, when, all 

 at once, I became aware of something at the 

 end of the pit jumping and dancing about, 

 here, there, and all over the place. It came 

 up to the side of the pit, very close to my head, 

 and then disappeared, suddenly, like a bladder 

 bursting. Next I saw it hanging on the side 

 of a tree ; it left the tree, though I could not 

 see it do so, but immediately reappeared skip- 

 ping round the pit. I could not make it out at 

 all ; at first I thought it was an owl, and then I 

 remembered that an owl would fly and not hop, 

 skip and jump. Last of all, the thing hung on 



