20 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



Anyway, the next season brought unmistakable 

 improvement in the matter of foxes, to which it will 

 be my painful duty to allude elsewhere. My first 

 season was the only one during which I never lost a 

 nest by foxes. 



Human egg-stealers are very difficult to catch in 

 such a way that their guilt may be proved. Conse- 

 quently, I was very keen on making a capture. 

 One Sunday morning, by sheer luck, I saw two 

 suspicious-looking men enter my little covert. Now, 

 I thought, was my chance ; what would hide their 

 movements would hide mine. I gained the edge of 

 the covert and listened. Didn't my heart thump 

 when I heard a stealthy movement through the 

 stuff! It thumped still more when I heard a voice 

 say, * 'Ere's one, Bill.' ' How many ?' asked Bill. 

 * Only four,' his companion answered. Timing my 

 interruption to coincide with the lifting of the four 

 eggs, I introduced myself to Bill and his mate with 

 the suggestion that they had better leave them 

 alone. Picture my disappointment when those four 

 eggs turned out to be blue, with black spots at the 

 thick end ! 



Here I must refer to a regrettable practice of the 

 farmer, who, as I have said before, with slight 

 alterations, might have been an ideal farmer from 

 the gamekeeper's point of view. He never was 

 without a fair stock of gipsies on the farm : not that 

 he had any special personal regard for them, but 



