90 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



a yard behind, it will either " buck " the gate 

 or take the fence. Consequently the Keeper 

 has netted every hare on his ground. This 

 greatly reduces the poachers' chances, and wire 

 snares are now the only engines that can be 

 successfully used. 



Spring and summer are taken up with 

 pheasant-breeding, and this is an anxious 

 time. The work is not difficult, but arduous. 

 And then, so much of the Keeper's work is 

 estimated by the head of game he can turn 

 out. This result is palpable, — one that can 

 be seen both by master and visitors. There 

 is nothing to show for long and often fruitless 

 night-watching but rheumatism, and so the 

 Keeper appreciates all the more readily the 

 praise accorded him for the number of well- 

 grown birds he can show at the covert-side. 



After pheasant-shooting in October, the 

 serious winter work of the keeper begins. Each 

 week he has to kill from three to four hundred 

 rabbits, which are sent to the markets of large 

 manufacturing towns. He can employ what 

 engines against them he pleases, but the num- 

 ber must be produced. The work being long 

 continued, becomes monotonous. Firing a hun- 



