Foxes ; Cats ; Hedgehogs. 77 



on the platform in the middle, cause both doors to fall simul- 

 taneously, when the animal is secured unharmed, and may either 

 be liberated or shot into a sack and drowned. 



Laying poisoned meat is now illegal, and restrictions are- 

 placed upon the sale of arsenic by statute ; nevertheless I 

 would caution anyone against the use of that drug, the employ- 

 ment of which is attended with much cruelty, as with some 

 animals 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 little 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. 



Badgers are such interesting animals that many covert- 

 owners would protect them at the expense of their game ;. 

 but there can be no question that if they become too numerous,, 

 or perhaps if the season happens to be exceptionally dry,, 

 they may do a considerable amount of damage, and will devour 

 whole clutches of hatching eggs. 



Among the other enemies to young pheasants that attack 

 them occasionally may be mentioned adders, and even farm- 

 yard ducks that have gained access to the coops. 



The little owl, too, Athene nodua, which was first introduced 

 into England from Holland by the late Lord Lilford in the early 

 'nineties, and which has since multiplied enormously and 

 spread into almost every county in England, has proved a. 

 most unfortunate addition to our fauna. Its diet consists, 

 largely of beetles, worms, etc., but it also kills great quantities, 

 of small birds, and with many authenticated instances of 

 depredation in the rearing-field to its discredit it cannot be 

 acquitted as an enemy of young pheasants. 



