Practical Game-Preserving. 292 



broken-down hedgerows, and the many other spots and 

 places which afford harbour for vermin may be cleared up 

 and set in order. It is also the period when the rabbits 

 must be finally dealt with and cleared out of all places 

 where they are not desired to be and to reproduce their kind. 

 Particularly should this be done round the prospective 

 rearing-fields, for young rabbits attract both ground and 

 winged vermin, and the advantage of having the 

 boundaries of such fields free from them is sufficiently 

 obvious. 



The matter of rabbits and vermin brings us to the 

 question of traps and snares, nets and wire netting, in 

 connection with which there is often great waste upon the 

 preserve, particularly upon those where such matters are 

 relegated to the under men, and not personally controlled 

 by the head keeper. One of the best recommendations 

 for a gamekeeper in charge is that he can catch all the 

 vermin upon the manor of which he has charge, and be 

 thoroughly able to show his under men how it is done, 

 instructing them not only in the use of all up-to-date 

 materials, but many of the springes and falls of earlier 

 days, and whose employment is so very useful and 

 effective. 



The use of the snare for rabbit-catching is a matter 

 which requires much more than a passing interest, because 

 the tendency of the times, irrespective of the Ground 

 Game Act, is to do away with the use of the Dorset trap 

 for rabbit-catching. Thus it is that one of the keeper's 

 duties should be to provide and work all the snares he may 

 require. 



The amount of wire netting used nowadays is very large, 

 both for permanent purposes and temporarily for stop- 

 ping purposes at shooting-time. The same is the case 

 with twine-netting and sewin. These are matters to be 



