20 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
Anyway, the next season brought unmistakable 
improvement in the matter of foxes, to which it will 
be my painful duty to allude elsewhere. My first 
season was the only one during which I never lost a 
nest by foxes. 
Human egg-stealers are very difficult to catch in 
such a way that their guilt may be proved. Conse- 
quently, I was very keen on making a capture. 
One Sunday morning, by sheer luck, I saw two 
suspicious-looking men enter my little covert. Now, 
I thought, was my chance; what would hide their 
movements would hide mine. I gained the edge of 
the covert and listened. Didn’t my heart thump 
when I heard a stealthy movement through the 
stuff! It thumped still more when I heard a voice 
say, ‘’Ere’s one, Bill.’ ‘How many? asked Bill. 
“Only four, his companion answered. Timing my 
interruption to coincide with the lifting of the four 
eggs, I introduced myself to Bill and his mate with 
the suggestion that they had better leave them 
alone. Picture my disappointment when those four 
eggs turned out to be blue, with black spots at the 
thick end! 
Here I must refer to a regrettable practice of the 
farmer, who, as I have said before, with slight 
alterations, might have been an ideal farmer from 
the gamekeeper’s point of view. He never was 
without a fair stock of gipsies on the farm : not that 
he had any special personal regard for them, but 
