GAMEKEEPERS. 325 



First. — Inveterate foes. 



Second. — Occasional foes, or possible friends. 



Inthe first group he would probably place the cat, fox, — a cunning 

 and inveterate poacher — crow, sparrowhawk, magpie, stoat, rat. 



In the second, the tawny owl, barn owl, rook, jay, kestrel, 

 weasel, hedgehog, badger. 



The writer, at any rate, has very good reasons for so dividing 

 the vermin ; but, for want of space, he cannot give them here. 

 But to take just one instance. Of all the enemies the keeper has, 

 not one is more persistent, more insidious, or more deadly than the 

 barn rat. And yet many keepers, who will expend a vast amount 

 of trouble in catching owls and jays, either under-estimate the 

 rat's power or are content to accept him as an unpleasant but 

 endurable fact. He is in truth the deadliest enemy of game. 



There is one little trick the keepers are much inclined to try 

 on. It is to leave crows, sparrowhawks, and such like until they 

 have young, and then to kill the lot, and so to make a good show 

 in the keeper's larder. By that time, needless to say, all the 

 harm is done. Few keepers can keep a good dog — or, rather, 

 keep a [good dog good — and fewer still can make one. It is a 

 question of tact and temper. And of all the things that go to 

 spoil a day's shooting these two are the worst : the dog that runs 

 in and the keeper that rates or punishes him. 



The keeper must have in him something of generalship, for it is 

 he who has to order the management of the " shoot." He 

 must be possessed of discretion and of pleasant manners, or your 

 shooting may be ruined by the tenant farmers. The keeper must 

 be a man of strong moral character, for his temptations are great, 

 and are often made greater through the fault of his master. 



