238 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
proved that it had been lying there for ever so long, 
while the bird had been gone only a day. Cunning 
as that old vixen proved herself to be, I cannot give 
her credit for placing that lump of coal near the 
nest, to shift the blame for the bird’s disappearance. 
I found where some boy evidently had amused him- 
self by throwing partridge eggs against a gate-post. 
I removed the traces of egg from the post, and 
never said a word about it. If I had, it probably 
would have suggested a rather fascinating pastime 
to boys who otherwise never would have thought of 
doing such a thing. The keeper whose eggs are 
wilfully destroyed, as a rule has served labourers a 
dirty trick, or has shown a great want of tact in his 
dealings with them. 
Gipsies are inveterate stealers of eggs, as of any- 
thing else they can lay hands on with small chance 
of being caught. Four nearly full nests of partridge 
eggs disappeared from a boundary hedge which did 
not belong to me. I did not even know of the 
existence of the nests till I heard they were gone. 
I got hauled up on rather more than suspicion of 
shifting the eggs. I asked who said I had done so, 
and was informed, the keeper beyond my boundary. 
I asked why he had said so, and was informed, some 
gipsies had seen me. I lost no time in telling that 
keeper that he had the option of believing me or the 
gipsies. And he saw what a fool the gipsies had 
made of him, also what a fool he had made of 
