20 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



the sport of his master to his master's ancestors to- 

 day about 300 pheasants are bagged on this estate in 

 the course of a big day's shooting, instead of the 30 

 birds that would have been a good bag in the olden 

 times. 



V ^ * 



In olden days the gamekeeper set up his vermin 

 gallows in each of his big woods. It was to his 



credit to show that he had killed a large 

 Gallows* amount of vermin ; on his gallows he 



wrote his own testimonial. Nearly all the 

 vermin he killed was duly displayed. But now the 

 day of the gallows is passing. Keepers have little 

 time to give to the display ; nor do employers always 

 encourage it. The gallows foster a growing feeling 

 against the destruction of wild life involved by the 

 preservation of game, and lead to bitter, if often mis- 

 judged attacks. Keepers are contenting themselves 

 with modified forms of gallows, as the trunk of a 

 tree, to which the heads, tails or claws of the male- 

 factors are nailed. These small gallows do not speak 

 of the keeper's successful war-waging in the bold 

 manner of the old-fashioned, full-measure pattern. 

 But there is much in their favour. As one old keeper 

 remarked of his tree-trunk gallows, the faint odour 

 was only enough to set-off the scent of the flowers. 



To the gallows comes a varied bag of robbers. 

 The vermin list of a typical North-country estate 

 included in a recent season 133 stoats, 36 weasels, 

 62 cats, 98 rats, 115 hedgehogs, 10 hawks, 381 jack- 



