BEARING AND PEOTEOTION. 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, fltchet, 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 oU), 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 wiU 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 doziag so innocently by 

 the fixe 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 easUy taken ia 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 vomitiag, 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 weU as to the young 

 birds, and should be trapped in coverts in which pheasants are reared. 



