286 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



think he must have meant hog's-bane or henbane. 

 At any rate, he skinned three rabbits, scored their 

 flesh, which he dusted with the powder, and tied 

 the carcasses high up in three trees in a little covert 

 away out on the Hampshire downs. When he 

 returned the next day nothing but the skeletons of 

 the rabbits remained ; and he actually picked up no 

 fewer than forty-seven crows and magpies beneath 

 the first rabbit-baited tree. I do not deny that a 

 few keepers may abuse the use of poison, but I 

 know that many an innocent keeper has been 

 blamed for the death of cats and dogs, which 

 evidently had ' picked up something.' Cottagers 

 use poison-paste on bread and butter for mice with 

 as little compunction as blacking for boots. Once 

 a lady met me in a lonely lane, and tackled me in the 

 most aggressive way about her cat. I told her it 

 was news to me that she had a cat, denied that I 

 had anything to do with its end, and expressed a 

 polite regret. As she clung to her cocksure attitude, 

 I suggested that for two guineas the kind of poison 

 that had finished her cat might be ascertained. I 

 could have put her on the track of her own gardener, 

 who, I knew, was losing sweet-peas by mice in- 

 numerable. No decent keeper ever dreams of 

 interfering with cats that don't poach. 



It is a mistake to suppose that there are no 

 rabbits in a wood because none can be got by 

 ferreting. Wiring, trapping, and ferreting are all 



