CHAPTER XXXIL 



THE GAMEKEEPER: His Rights and Duties. 



THE great diversity in the size and mode of management 

 of game-preserves naturally means an equally large 

 difference in the class of man called upon to take charge 

 of them, from the head keeper who controls a great 

 manor, involving several beats, to the one who has merely 

 what is usually termed a one-man shoot under his care. 

 It may very well happen that as far as the purely practical 

 part of the work, the actual preserving, goes, the head 

 keeper upon a big manor may know less than those under 

 him. It should not be so, but frequently is so, when 

 the former acts more as keeper-in-chief, planning the 

 annual campaign in all its branches, whilst the under- 

 keepers carry his ideas into effect. A head keeper in 

 charge of a self-contained, moderate shoot, or an under- 

 keeper in a similar position in regard to one or more 

 beats of an extensive one, must know every detail of his 

 work " from shell to shot," and besides exercising control 

 over those under him must, or should, be able to instruct 

 them practically in every detail of the business. He must 

 further be as well able to bear himself properly in the 

 rearing-field and upon the preserve during the off season as 

 in field or covert or on the moors in the shooting- time. 

 Withal, he is bound to work in with the owner of the 



