. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . inroad—the gates are wide open, therails pulled down, and trespass is but a fiction for thehour. To see these gentry roaming at their ease inhis woods is a bitter trial to the keeper, who grindshis teeth in silence as they pass him with a grin, per-fectly aware of and enjoying his spleen. Somehow orother these fellows always manage to get in the wayjust where the fox was on the point of breaking cover ;if he makes a clear start and heads for the meadows,before he has passed the first field a ragged jacketappears over the h
. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . inroad—the gates are wide open, therails pulled down, and trespass is but a fiction for thehour. To see these gentry roaming at their ease inhis woods is a bitter trial to the keeper, who grindshis teeth in silence as they pass him with a grin, per-fectly aware of and enjoying his spleen. Somehow orother these fellows always manage to get in the wayjust where the fox was on the point of breaking cover ;if he makes a clear start and heads for the meadows,before he has passed the first field a ragged jacketappears over the hedge, and then the language of thehuntsman is not always good to listen to. The work of rearing the young broods of pheasantsis a trying and tedious one. The keeper has his own Rearincr Younz Pheasants :)3 specific treatment, in which he has impUcit faith, andlaughs to scorn the pheasant-meals and feeding-stuffsadvertised in the papers. He mixes it himself, andlikes no one prying about to espy his secret, thoughin reality his success is due to watchful care and not. TENDING THE YOUNG BIRDS, to any particular nostrum. The most favourable spotfor rearing is a small level meadow, if possible withoutfurrows, which has been fed off close to the groundand is situated high and dry, and yet well shelteredwith wood all round. Damp is a great enemy of the 54 The Gamekeeper at Ho77ie brood, and long grass wet with dew in the early morn-ing sometimes proves fatal if the delicate young birdsare allowed to drag themselves through it. Besides the coops, here and there bushes, cut forthe purpose, are piled in tolerably large heaps. Theuse of these is for the broods to run under if a hawkappears in the sky ; and it is amusing to watch howsoon the little creatures learn to appreciate this the spring the greater part of the keepers time isoccupied in this way : he spends hours upon hours inthe hundred and one minutiae which ensure breeding-time is the great anxiety of th
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, booksubjectcountrylife, booksubjecthunting
