A POACHER IN PETTICOATS 



of her poaching profits. Buck was the daughter of 

 a gamekeeper, and learned most that she knew of 

 game and snaring it by going into the woods with 

 her father in girlhood. She was a match for any 

 male poacher in wiring game, furred and feathered, 

 and worked her ferrets with skill. 



She had a gun, and the nerve to go into the 

 copse after dark to shoot roosting pheasants. The 

 sound of the pheasant poacher's gun at nightfall used 

 to be heard more often than it is to-day. The risk 

 was not so great as one might suppose, save where 

 keepers and watchers were numerous. The old 

 muzzle-loader was carried in pieces, hidden in deep 

 coat-pockets, and not fitted together till the wood 

 was entered. It did not make much noise, for the 

 poacher loaded very lightly with powder. He was 

 near his game, so a full charge was not needful. 

 The result was a kind of muffled report, and in 

 the midst of woods I noticed that this sound was 

 hard to locate. Charles Waterton, to torment the 

 poachers and waste their powder, had wooden bird 

 dummies nailed on his trees. I doubt whether a 

 complete poacher like Buck, nothing if not wood- 

 crafty, could be cheated so. 



Outwitting the Stoat 



The stoat and weasel, with all their effrontery, 

 cannot face a ferret in a rabbit-burrow. Though 



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