293 The Gamekeeper. 



dealt with by the keeper, as well in regard to repairs 

 and storage, as provision for future requirements. Long 

 rabbit nets and the small ones for ferreting purposes 

 come under the same category ; whilst the care and breed- 

 ing of ferrets are also amongst the gamekeeper's duties. 



It is advisable to call attention to the fact that the some- 

 what frequent practice in which gamekeepers indulge of 

 shooting trespassing dogs is usually illegal and always 

 likely to prove costly. A gamekeeper must not shoot a 

 neighbour's dog when it is trespassing, nor will the plea 

 that it was done to save the life of pursued game avail in 

 a court of law. If dogs trespass on his land he must warn 

 the owner, and inform him that traps will be set. He 

 must not place them, however, in such positions near the 

 highway that any baits used will lure dogs to them. As 

 a rule, his best and only recourse is through the Court for 

 damage done, and with a view to obtaining an order to the 

 owner to have the offending dog destroyed. The notice 

 that stray dogs will be shot is useless as a safeguard for 

 any action in this respect. 



It is only possible within the limits of this work to refer 

 to these matters in passing, but those of my readers who 

 require further information in detail as to the working of 

 traps, snares, and the like for rabbits, and the management 

 of ferrets, will find all they require in the writer's small 

 manuals upon the subjects.* 



Other points in connection with the duties of the game- 

 keeper will have to be dealt with in the chapters on 

 poaching, &c., and I will now pass to the full consideration 

 of one of the most important if not the most important 

 of his duties, viz., vermin catching. 



* "Practical Trapping" and "Ferrets and Ferreting," price is. 2d. 

 each, post free, from L. Upcott Gill, Bazaar Buildings, W.C. 



