REARING AND PROTECTION. 49 
and then keep away entirely till I thought the bird had hatched, as constantly 
haunting a bird’s nest is the most foolish thing that can be. When such nests are 
once found and dressed, let the keeper look out and trap all kinds of vermin, such 
as the cat, stoat, fitchet, weasel, hedgehog, or rat, or magpie, jay, hawk, crow, 
rook, or jackdaw. These are all enemies to the birds, as well as the fox. I am 
satisfied, as a gamekeeper, that with good vermin trapping, dressing near the nests, 
and good bushing and pegging of land, anyone will have plenty of game, and 
may still keep plenty of foxes.” 
Another equally efficacious plan, the value of which has been repeatedly proved, 
is to fill a number of phials with the so-called “oil of animal” (also known as 
oil of hartshorn and Dippel’s oil), and suspend them uncorked to sticks about 
eighteen inches long,:and stick two or three round each nest, about a foot from 
it. The smell of the oil will keep the foxes from approaching. 
In the vicinity of dwellings, there is no more dangerous enemy to pheasants 
than the common cat. Captain Darwin, in his “Game Preserver’s Manual,” writes 
as follows:—‘There is no species of vermin more destructive to game than the 
domestic cat. People not aware of her predatory habits would never for a moment 
suppose that the household favourite that appears to be dozing so innocently by 
the fire is most probably under the influence of fatigue caused by a hard night’s 
hunting in the plantations. How different also in her manner is a cat when at 
home and when detected prowling after the game. In the first of the two cases she 
is tame and accessible to any little attentions; in the latter she seems to know she 
is doing wrong, and scampers off home as hard as she can go. Luckily there is 
no animal more easily taken in a trap, if common care be used in setting.” 
Laying poisoned meat is now illegal, and the sale of arsenic to private 
persons interdicted by statute; nevertheless I would caution any one against the 
use of that drug, as the employment of it is attended with much cruelty, as it is 
immediately rejected by vomiting, but not before it has laid the foundation of a 
violent and painful inflammation of the stomach, from which the animal suffers 
for weeks, but rarely dies. If it is absolutely necessary to use poison for cats, 
a little carbonate of baryta, mixed up with the soft roe of a red herring, is the 
most certain and speedy that can be employed, but a good keeper should know 
how to trap cats and all other vermin, as polecats, stoats, &c., and keep his 
preserves clear without the aid of poison. 
Hedgehogs are undoubtedly destructive to eggs as well as to the young 
birds, and should be trapped in coverts in which pheasants are reared. 
—_—< e carps 2 —__ 
