CATS IN PHEASANT COVEBTS. 75 



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 oil 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 

 Kttle 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 keep his preserves 

 clear of vermin 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. 



