The Gamekeepers Directory PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ... suffer the approach of the keeper. Therefore a hut formed of boughs and brushwood must be made within gunshot of the nest, so as to conceal a man with a gun. If only one person go into the cover where the nest may be, the old bird will fly away and continue sailing round the place so long as the man remains in the cover, and will not, until she sees him go completely away, return to the nest. But as birds have not the faculty of-counting, two persons must go into the wood towards the nest; one must remain, and the other retire, taking care that the old bird sees one leave the neighbourhood. She will return to her nest without suspicion the moment the man retiring is at what she considers a safe distance. The person remaining in the wood must have his gun bearing on the nest, so as to fire the moment she alights on the edge of it, or the opportunity will be lost. These remarks are equally applicable to the magpie and raven. OBSERVATIONS ON POACHING, AND ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTING IT. A Poacher generally exhibits external marks or characteristics of his profession; the suspicious leer of his hollow and sunken eyes, his pallid cheek, his wide, copious, and well-pocketed jacket--in fact, his appearance altogether is impressively at variance with that which is manifested hy any other class of the human species. He contracts habits of idleness to such a degree that he can scarcely ever persuade himself to work, even at that period of the year when there is no longer an illicit market open for the fruits of his noturnal depredations. As the month of September draws near he puts his tackle in order--he prepares his destructive net, and watches with unwearied perseverance the jucking of partridges. During the season of his culpable exertion, when...