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A Gamekeeper's Note-book

Chapter 4: SPRING
By Owen Jones
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

The authors assemble short, observational entries drawn from keepers' pocket notebooks and long experience to present a practical, episodic portrait of rural gamekeeping through the seasons. Entries detail daily routines, estate perquisites, cottage life, trapping and vermin control, encounters with poachers and sporting parties, and close natural-history observations of birds, mammals, nests and breeding. Practical instruction on management, traps and dog work sits beside quiet character sketches of keepers and their families, while episodic incidents and reflective notes convey woodcraft, animal behaviour, and the everyday challenges of preserving and rearing game.

LIST OF CONTENTS

SPRING

PAGE
The Keeper's Lot 1
Perquisites 2
Pets at the Cottage 3
Wood-Pigeons 4
The Keeper's Larder 5
Homely Medicines 7
The Earth-Stoppers' Feast 8
The Keeper's Garden 9
Keepers' Holidays 12
An Advantage of Marriage 13
The Keeper seeks a New Berth 14
In North and South 15
Poachers— 15
And their Dogs 16
Perfect Obedience 17
The Black List 18
A South-Country Record 19
Woodland Gallows 20
The Gallows Martyrs 21
Once Trapped, Twice Shy 22
Cunning Trappers 23
The Time to Catch a Weasel 24
Changes of Coats 25
The Vermin Bag 26
The Ways of Squirrels 27
The Squirrel's Appetite 28
The Departure of Cats 29
Skeletons and Cobwebs 30
The Persecuted Magpie 31
The Merciful Trap 32
The Rabbit in a Snare 33
The Sleep of Birds 34
Animals at Rest 36
Vigilant Fulfers 37
The Eyes of Wild Creatures 38
The Season's End 39
Beaters' Sport 41
Tailless Cocks 43
Preparations 44
Hungry Rabbits 44
To Save Underwood 45
Studies in Fear 46
The Rookery 48
When Rooks Build 49
Ways of the Crows 49
The Crow as Terrorist 51
Imperial Rooks 51
Rook-Pie 52
Birds for Stock 53
Old Hens 55
A Gamekeeping Problem 56
The Hare Poacher 57
March Hares 58
The Cubs' Birthday 59
Courtiers in Pens 60
When Hawks Nest 62
Love-Dances 63
Names that Puzzle Cockneys 63
Hares and their Young 66
Starving Birds 67
The Egg of Eggs 68
Pheasants' Eggs 69
Hens in Cocks' Feathers 71
About Nesting Pheasants 71
The Broody Hen 73
The Frenchmen's Nests 76
The Last of the Hurdlers 77
Hurdlers' Science 78
The Woodman 79
A Dying Race 79
Choice Nesting-Places 80
Hidden Nests 81
A Mutual Understanding 82
Many Guardians 82
Mark's Day 84
The Old, Old Story 85
The Luck of Pheasant-Rearing 86
From Egg to Larder 88
Fine Eggs and good Mothers 88
The Cub-Stealing Shepherd 89
Lures and Charms 90
The Law and the Peewit 92
The Partridge and the Peewit 93
A Friend to Agriculture 93
The Rats in the Stacks 94
Thoughts on Rat-hunting 95
When Cats are Angered 96
Hunters' Thirst 96
Life-in-Death 97
Ideal Ratters 98
Ratting without Ferrets 100

SUMMER

A Keeper Chorister 103
Velveteens 104
Owls and Hawks 105
The Bold Sparrow-Hawk 106
Nest and Young 108
The Keeper Outwitted 110
A Jackdaw Nursery 111
Detective Work 112
Cattle in the Woods 112
A Tragedy of the Woodlands 114
Fox and Partridge 114
A Study in Perseverance 115
The Hut in the Woods 116
Pheasant Chicks 117
The Roosting Habit 119
The Badger's Stealth 121
To Attract Bullfinches 123
Bird Warnings 123
A Rabbit's Fates 124
Game-Birds and Motors 125
Mysteries of the Nightjar 126
The Razor-grinder 127
A Ventriloquist 127
The Cock and the Hen 129
On Finding Feathers 130
When the Dog's Asleep 131
A Story of Rats 132
Blood and Water 133
The Untimely Opening 134
'Ware Wire 135
Witless Pheasants 135
Nature's Laws 136
The Partridge June 137
Favoured Pheasants 138
A Covey of Ancients 140
Keepers' Woe 141
Red-Legs 141
Water for Game-Birds 142
Ideal Coverts 144
The Thrist of Rabbits 145
Puppies at Walk 145
Schooling the Puppies 147
Dogs' Noses 148
The Thief of the World 149
The Cubs' Playground 151
A Fox's Feat 152
Dog-Washing Days 153
Shame-faced Cocks 155
The Turtle-Dove's Summer 157
The Lagging Landrail 157
The Truce Ends 159
The Thieving Jay 160
The Oldest Writing 161
Prospects 162
Useful Work by Game-Birds 163
Life of the Cornfield 164
The Keeper's Hopes 165
Finding the Fox 167
Harvest Sport 167
The Luck of the Game 169
Rabbit-Catchers' Craft 170
Among the Corn 172
The Last to Leave 172
In the Woods 173
Weasel Families 173
Mother Stoat 174
Lurking-Places 176
Studies in Stoat Ways 177
The First 179
Early Birds 179
Walking-up 180
Thoughts on Cubbing 181
Wines of the Country 183

AUTUMN

The Verdict of the Season 185
Weather to pray for 187
After the Opening 187
An October Day 188
Low Flight and High 189
Wily Grouse Cocks 189
Rewards for Cubs 190
"Various"—the Landrail 191
Sport amid the Shocks 192
"Mark" 193
The Keeper's Dogs 195
Woodcock Owls 196
Dogs that Despise Woodcock 196
Pets of Pigs 198
Some Deals in Dogs 199
Marked Birds 200
Colour-Changes in Feathers 200
Nature's Healing 201
A Little Story 202
Accidents to Hares 202
Hares no longer Speedy 203
Starling Hosts 204
Trials of a Copser 205
Wild Birds in Cages 205
Truffles 206
Retriever's Usefulness 206
Nuts and Mice 207
The Hand of Time 209
The Keeper grows Old 210
Rabbit Ways in Autumn 211
The Rabbits' House-cleaning 212
The Guileless Countryman 213
Sporting Policemen 214
The Woodcraft of Gipsies 215
Gipsy Lies 217
Long-netters 219
Training Rabbits 219
Why Birds Flock 221
The Companies of Rats 222
The Fall 223
Late and Early Autumns 223
Hares in the Garden 224
Food for Pheasants 225
The Lingering Leaves 226
Planning Big Shoots 227
Plots and Counter-Plots 228
Indian Summer 229
Winter Sleep 230
A Dish of Hedgehog 231

WINTER

Rustic Wit 233
The Oak City 233
Acorns 234
Plump Rabbits 236
The Stoat's Hunting 237
Mysteries of Scent 238
The Axe in the Coverts 241
The Uses of Underwood 242
The Tipping System 243
Free Suppers for the Fox 245
Clues to the Thief 246
Muzzled by a Snare 247
Cunning Rascals 248
A Hunting Argument 249
The Clever Terrier 251
Born Retrieving 252
Some Sporting Types 252
Victims of Wire 253
Stoat or Weasel? 253
"The Horrid Badger" 254
Chalk-Pit Haunts 255
When the Fox sleeps 255
When Ferret meets Fox 256
February Rabbits 257
The Moucher's Excuse 257
When Hounds come 258
When Hounds are gone 259
Poachers' Weapons 260
Moles' Skins for Furs 261
Covert-shooting Problems 262
"Cocks only"—to compromise 262
What a Cat may kill 263
A Cockney Story 264
Hares in Small Holdings 265
The Sins of the Father 266
The Pheasants' Roosting-Trees 267
The Fox in the Storm 268
Foxes at Pheasant Shoots 268
Pheasants that go to Ground 269
Pheasants' Doomsday 270
The Hungry Retriever 270
The Old Wood 271
Memories of Muzzle-loaders 272
Relics of the Great Days 273
Cleaning a Muzzle-loader 274
The Knowing Beater 275
Old Friends 276
What Shepherds enjoy 277
Lives of Labour 277
In the Folds 278
Shepherds' Care 279
Winter Partridge-driving 279
The Fear of Snow 281
Hard-Weather Prophets 282
Weather-wise Beasts and Birds 282
Green Winters 284
What Rainy Days bring 285
Cubs at Christmas 286
Work for Rainy Days 287
The Old Lumber 288
When Foxes mate 289
A Keeper's Dreams 290
A Death-bed Vision 291
Christmas Sport 292
Cunning Cock Pheasants 293
A Dish of Greens 293
Christmas Shoots 294
Woodcock Talk 295
Spare the Hens 296
A Free-and-Easy 297
A Keeper's Ghost-Story 298
Old Friends in Velveteen 300
The Converted Shepherd 302
A Final Story 302
Careful Wives 303
"What Her was Like" 304
   
Index 305