VERDERER—is a judicial officer of the King's Forest, elected (under his Majesty's writ) by a majority of votes in a convened county court of the shire in which the forest is; and there sworn before the sheriff, to keep and maintain the assizes and laws of the forest; and also to review, receive, and enrol, all the attachments and presentments of all manner of trespasses of the forest in respect to vert and venison. The official department of a Verderer bears great similitude to that of a coroner, and in this particular respect; that as a coroner, upon the notice of a sudden or accidental death, (if attended with circumstances to render the inquisition necessary,) is to take a personal view of the body, and to make inquiry, upon the joint oaths of twelve men, how and by what means the person came by his or her death, and who and what was the occasion thereof; so it is the official duty of the Verderer to look after and view the beasts of the forest; for any of those being found hurt, wounded, or slain, upon notice given to the Verderer, he is to take a view of the same, and to cause a jury of twelve men to be summoned from the surrounding district, that an inquisition may be made to discover (if possible) how and by whom the said beast was hurt, wounded, or killed. The office of the Verderer at the Court of Attachments, is to sit there to see, hear and examine the attachments of the forest, both in vert and in venison, and to receive the same of the subordinate officers, or those who may attend to present them there, and then to enter them into their own rolls. See FOREST LAWS. VERMIN—is a term of very extensive signification, including a long list of noxious animals, some of which contribute largely to the sports of the field. The principal vermin of this country consist of the fox, the badger, the martern, the pole-cat, the weasel, the stoat, the rat, and the mouse; of which a description of all the former will be found under their distinct heads. VERT—is a term in the Forest Laws, meant to include every plant growing within a forest or its purlieus, bearing a _green leaf_, and of sufficient magnitude to hide or cover a deer beneath its branches; but it must be understood to signify such plants as are either trees, woods, bushes, or underwood; not descending to inferior shrubs, passing under the denomination of plants, but affording no cover. By _vert_ is therefore implied those trees of growth and size sufficient to be entitled conjunctively to the appellation of covert; as well underwood, as great woods; and overt-vert is all sorts of high trees, as nether-vert includes every kind of underwood.