188 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



sacrifice at the altar of game-preserving. Sometimes 

 a land-owner who is a fishing enthusiast will put a ban 

 upon the heron, with the result that it fills a space, by 

 no means a small one, upon the wall of the kennels 

 or upon the vermin rails. 



Such, then, are the condemned. Now let us look 

 into the counts of the indictment, for a first glance 

 suggests that there may be degrees of guilt and in fact 

 that the innocent, or relatively innocent, have in some 

 cases suffered for the misdemeanours of villains of a 

 much deeper dye. It must not be forgotten that the 

 gamekeeper's motto is "when in doubt, kill," also 

 that he is in no wise likely to give bird or beast credit 

 for being better than it appears to be. Upon weasels 

 and stoats one need waste no sentiment ; they are 

 notorious little cut-throats, though the weasel destroys 

 a large number of field-mice, but one is sorry to see 

 the hedgehog — quiet, inoffensive seeker of grubs and 

 earth-worms in the twilight — in such company. Sad 

 to say, the hedgehog's occasional lapses from the path 

 of virtue are but too well attested, when temptation 

 presents itself in the form of a partridges' nest or a 

 young leveret hidden in the grass. 



The Sparrow-hawk deserves no mercy, but how 

 about the Kestrel ? Its manner of hunting, examina- 

 tion of its castings, too, if further evidence be needed, 

 proclaims it a destroyer of insects, chiefly beetles, 

 and of small rodents. The gamekeeper, if pressed, 



