iS TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



sorts of cranes the implement for lifting and the 

 bird I concluded that he meant by a crane a 

 heron. He went on to describe how his crane ran 

 out of a manure-heap. I became very much in- 

 terested. After a deal of cross-examining, during 

 which the old chap showed some irritation at my 

 pardonable scepticism, I got out of him that his 

 crane was a weasel, or * wizzel,' as Hampshire folks 

 say. (I did not then know that weasels and stoats 

 in some localities are called cranes.) 



Here is an account of how old B., the 'brother- 

 in-law,' relieved me of responsibility in the matter 

 of a poaching cat. Poaching cats were included, 

 with gipsies, among the things he ' couldn't a-bear 

 nohow.' The excursions of a large black cat belong- 

 ing to a cluster of cottages (precisely to which one 

 I preferred not to find out) had attracted my atten- 

 tion ; so I decided to set a trap in a likely hedge, 

 which, in fact, proved to be more than likely, for 

 while I was struggling to get a peg into the stony 

 bank, I saw black Thomas a quarter of a mile away, 

 apparently prowling up the hedge. To shorten this 

 cat's history, I was making my way along the 

 hedge betimes next morning when I saw someone 

 coming from the opposite direction. A few more 

 yards, and he would reach my trap. I took cover, 

 knowing that if the cat was caught, and the man did 

 not let it out of the trap, he was certain to let it out 

 of the bag, which was worse. Here was a pretty 



