2 3 8 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



proved that it had been lying there for ever so long, 

 while the bird had been gone only a day. Cunning 

 as that old vixen proved herself to be, I cannot give 

 her credit for placing that lump of coal near the 

 nest, to shift the blame for the bird's disappearance. 

 I found where some boy evidently had amused him- 

 self by throwing partridge eggs against a gate-post. 

 I removed the traces of egg from the post, and 

 never said a word about it. If I had, it probably 

 would have suggested a rather fascinating pastime 

 to boys who otherwise never would have thought of 

 doing such a thing. The keeper whose eggs are 

 wilfully destroyed, as a rule has served labourers a 

 dirty trick, or has shown a great want of tact in his 

 dealings with them. 



Gipsies are inveterate stealers of eggs, as of any- 

 thing else they can lay hands on with small chance 

 of being caught. Four nearly full nests of partridge 

 eggs disappeared from a boundary hedge which did 

 not belong to me. I did not even know of the 

 existence of the nests till I heard they were gone. 

 I got hauled up on rather more than suspicion of 

 shifting the eggs. I asked who said I had done so, 

 and was informed, the keeper beyond my boundary. 

 I asked why he had said so, and was informed, some 

 gipsies had seen me. I lost no time in telling that 

 keeper that he had the option of believing me or the 

 gipsies. And he saw what a fool the gipsies had 

 made of him, also what a fool he had made of 



