The Gamekeeper's Directory - Containing Instructions for the Preservation of Game, Destruction of Vermin and the Prevention of Poaching. (History of S

T. B. Johnson

• Publisher: Read Country Book
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781447487654
• Print ISBN:
  9781905124282

This important historical record of the ways of an early gamekeeper is extremely difficult to find in its original printing. First penned in 1820, it was revised, and then published by the author's son in 1851 as a second edition. Very few of either edition remain today. We are now republishing it using the original revised text. Its 200 pages detail the life and work of a keeper in the first half of the 19th century. Some 150 years on, the reader will find much of the contents and advice still remains relevant to gamekeepers and shooting men. The author offers his book as a "Practical book of instruction for the class to which it is particularly addressed, as well as to Sportsmen in general." Thirty-five concise chapters detail methods of preserving game, whilst advice is also given on controlling some thirty species of birds and mammals then considered vermin. Other chapters discuss: Trapping; Poisons; Hereditary Instinct; Observations on Poaching; The Game Laws; Steel Man Traps; Dog Spears; General Observation etc.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Preliminary remarks
• Grouse
• The Pheasant
• The Partridge
• Mode of hatching the eggs of Pheasants or Partridges when the parent bird has been killed, or the nest forsaken by her; and also of rearing the young, with observations on the breeding of game in general
• Of Vermin
• The Wild Cat
• The Martern, or Martin
• The Polecat
• The Stoat
• The Weasel
• The Hedgehog
• The Snake and the Adder
• The Rat
• The Fox
• The Kite
• The Buzzard
• The Sparrow-Hawk
• The Hobby
• The Merlin
• The Kestrel
• The White Owl
• The Brown, or Wood Owl
• The Raven
• The Carrion Crow
• The Rook
• The Hooded, or Royston Crow
• The Jackdaw
• The Magpie
• The Jay
• The Starling
• The Gull
• The Heron
• The Coot and Water Hen
• Of Water Birds in general
• The Otter
• Trapping
• Observations on the use of Poison in the destruction of Vermin
• Hereditary Instinct
• Observations on Poaching, and on the means of preventing it
• The Game Laws
• Steel Man Traps
• Dog Spears
• General observations