166 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



corn may meet death from the teeth of stoats or 

 weasels ; which in turn run a risk, if a slight one, 

 from the fox's teeth ; there are plenty of mole-runs 

 into which they may dive in times of danger. In 

 dry weather, the hedgehogs leave the ditches for the 

 corn ; and the cornfield, in real summer weather, 

 when there are no foxes about, is a paradise for 

 pheasants and partridges. The gamekeeper, what- 

 ever the weather, clings to the faith that the corn hides 

 most of his birds from his sight. There is comfort in 

 the thought that if the birds live he will see them, 

 but if they are killed, nothing will ever tell him the 

 story of his losses. 



Man ploughs and sows, but for every man who eats 

 the bread of the fields a million other mouths have 

 been fed. There is no such perfect sanctuary to wild 

 life as a field of corn. What the corn hides nobody 

 knows ; though many would gladly know, and seek 

 eagerly to find. The gamekeeper guesses shrewdly 

 what the corn may hide ; later he will find what has 

 been hidden, and it is as well for his peace of mind that 

 he can only speculate, at this season, on the game in 

 the field, for he is powerless to interfere. The com- 

 munity of the cornfield is almost safe from man, while 

 the corn stands. If any creature moves in the corn, 

 the stems, bowing to the breeze, cover its progress. 



Many a fox family spends the entire summer in the 

 cornfield, and no man is the wiser ; but if any should 



