CHAPTER VI 



VERMIN AND TRAPPING 



The worst pests Poisoning rats Rooks as robbers Ten stoats and 

 a silvery-white pheasant Litters of stoats Stoats and weasels 

 and rats Hawks Hedgehogs Jays as sentinels Owls Dis- 

 criminationVermin without end. 



' LET the keeper look after the vermin and the 

 game will look after itself' is a saying which has 

 stood the test of time. There is no more interest- 

 ing phase of a keeper's work than the circumvention 

 of vermin. Dull indeed would it be on a shoot 

 where there is absolutely no vermin ; one might as 

 well use a gun which mechanically prevented 

 missing. Though I had to do a lot of game- 

 shooting, I enjoyed the all-round sport with vermin 

 better. Often have I thought that I would like 

 to get a keeper's berth where vermin teemed. 

 I do not mean a place swarming with rats and 

 rooks, but holding a good old-fashioned stock of 

 all sorts of vermin. 



Putting foxes on a pedestal apart, I found rooks 

 and rats were the worst and most persistent pests 

 with which I had to deal. It is said that if you 



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