190 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



them far afield : and another advantage is that the 

 young birds which are spared are the most productive. 

 Moorland keepers at the end of the season are at 

 pains to kill off old cocks, which are such enemies 

 to the peaceful nesting of the young birds ; and many 

 are their devices for stalking and calling them to their 

 doom. Except when feeding, the wary old birds 

 like to be able to look all about them, and perch on 

 walls and hillocks, whence, holding their heads high, 

 their eyes may sweep afar for foes. Unlike par- 

 tridges, they are not content with the grain in the 

 stubble, but will perch on the stooks at harvest-time, 

 to attack the sheaves. 



Until the last field of corn is cut, cubs are spared 

 their introduction to the joys and sorrows of hunt- 

 ing ; but at the end of harvest their time 



is at hand> Few kee P ers look forward to 

 the coming of hounds for cubbing. When 

 hounds do come there is nothing more disappointing 

 to the keeper than that they should not find the cubs, 

 of whose dark deeds he has been complaining all the 

 summer. Not only does he lose the prospect of a 

 sovereign reward, but the cubs are still at large to 

 carry on their havoc, while he may appear to have 

 been crying wolf where there were no wolves ; the 

 loss of the sovereign is much less to him than the 

 loss of his credit and the prospective loss of his birds. 

 Different hunts have different methods of rewarding 



