DECEMBER 243 



vation due to the introduction, about a century ago, 

 of a variety from the far East. If we accompany the 

 man of traps and guns as he makes his round we shall 

 come to the conclusion that his knowledge of the ways 

 of the tenants of copse and spinney falls little short of 

 all that there is to know. Being a master of his trade, 

 he trusts more to traps than to his gun. Here the bait 

 of a dead rabbit has proved the undoing of a carrion 

 crow, and in this ditch he has placed a little wooden 

 culvert up which any creature of the weasel kind will 

 be certain to venture in its travels, the said culvert 

 containing a well-hidden trap. Sometimes a gin, 

 artfully concealed by soil and grass, is placed in a hollow 

 out of which a sod has been lifted. In the nice adjust- 

 ment of snares and poisoned baits he is, too, a past 

 master. This rabbit skin, neatly turned inside out, 

 bespeaks the handiwork of the fox. Not such was the 

 fate of the furry owner of the little white skull which 

 we pick up soon afterwards. Two lower incisors 

 grown out into long curved tusks show that dental 

 troubles shortened its days. 



Crossing the fields beyond the plantation, we note 

 that the remains of the partridge coveys are uniting 

 to form packs, as they always do towards the close of 

 the shooting season. So the short day passes, well- 

 spent, until with dusk the sparrows noisily go to roost 

 in the ivy, and the greenfinches seek the shelter of the 

 clipped yew-hedges. 



