10 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



pheasants he spends a good many minutes a day in 

 admiration of the birds, besides tending to their 

 wants ; and he will defy you to prove that you ever 

 saw a finer lot of birds. " Look at that old cock up 

 agen yon corner ain't 'e got some 'orns ? Bless 

 ye, them birds is worth a pound apiece." 



So many a March afternoon finds the keeper hard 

 at work at home with spade, fork, trowel or dibbler. 

 His great object is to finish the more laborious work 

 before the time of pheasants' eggs. A feature of the 

 garden is the neat and spacious onion-bed, smoothed 

 with the polished back of a favourite spade, which 

 has dug out countless rabbits. There must be plenty 

 of onions for the young pheasants to come. In time 

 of need a keeper may sacrifice the whole of his onion- 

 bed to his birds, gladly buying such onions as his 

 wife demands for the table. Then there are two or 

 three long rows of peas. Before sowing, the seed is 

 sprinkled with red lead against the ravages of long- 

 tailed field-mice, and after sowing strands of black 

 thread are carried up and down the surface against 

 the attacks of sparrows, while above, as a terrible 

 warning, swings the body of a sparrow-hawk. The 

 site of an. old pheasant pen is devoted to Brussels 

 sprouts. A dilapidated dog-kennel will serve to 

 coax rhubarb to be ready for Easter Sunday's dinner. 



Flower seeds are not forgotten : in shallow cart- 

 ridge-boxes, protected by a small home-made frame, 

 seeds are sown for making the little patch of flower- 

 garden gay with stocks and asters, sweet peas, sun- 



