24 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



which stray abroad and get their living by poaching. They 

 invariably gravitate towards the woods. The instance in 

 point is taken from an outlying district far from a town, 

 where the nuisance is comparatively small ; but in the 

 preserves say from ten to twenty miles round London the 

 cats thus killed must be counted by thousands. Families 

 change their homes, the cat is driven away by the new 

 comer and takes to the field. In one little copse not more 

 than two acres in extent, and about twelve miles from 

 Hyde Park Corner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks, 

 and nearly all in one spot — their favourite haunt. When 

 two or three wild or homeless animals take up their abode 

 in a wood, they speedily attract half a dozen hitherto tame 

 ones ; and, if they were not destroyed, it would be impos- 

 sible to keep either game or rabbits. 



She has her own receipts for preserving furs and 

 feathers, and long practice has rendered her an adept. 

 Here are squirrels' skins also prepared ; some with the 

 bushy tail attached, and some without. They vary in size 

 and the colour of the tail, which is often nearly white, in 

 others more deeply tinged with red. The fur is used to 

 line cloaks, and the tail is sometimes placed in ladies' hats. 

 Now and then she gets a badger-skin, which old country 

 folk used to have made into waistcoats, said to form an 

 efficacious protection for weak chests. She has made rugs 

 of several sewn together, but not often. 



In the store-room upstairs there are a few splendid fox- 



