THE REARED PHEASANT 237 



pheasants at home, men or boys being 

 regularly employed as permanent ' stops ' ; 

 on one estate in the Black Country, where 

 25,000 birds are turned down into the 

 coverts every year, no less than fifty-six 

 men and boys are employed, one way and 

 another, to look after them. 



Reared pheasants are more than usually 

 subject to the depredations of vermin 

 during their sojourn on the rearing-field, 

 and one of the keeper's most trying duties 

 is to protect his charges from their 

 enemies. 



Apart from the fox, who has an 

 importance which we have already recog- 

 nized by giving him a whole chapter to 

 himself, the commonly accepted enemies 

 of the game-rearer are, on the ground, 

 stoats, weasels, rats, hedgehogs, poaching 

 dogs and cats, and, in the air, magpies, 

 jays, hawks, hooded and carrion crows, 

 rooks, owls, jackdaws. All these the 

 keeper usually destroys at sight in the 

 neighbourhood of his rearing-field. 



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