170 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



on the upheld arms while the rest plunder ; and, if any 

 are lowered — bang ! Like the animals, they know the 

 extreme danger to be apprehended from movements 

 of the human arms. So long as the human arms are 

 " bailed " (though in this case in an opposite direction, 

 i.e. held down), animals are not afraid. Could they 

 make us "bail up," we should be helpless to injure 

 them. Moving his arms as gently as possible, with the 

 elbows close to his sides, the poacher proceeds to slowly 

 push his rod and wire loop towards the basking jack. 

 If he were going to shoot partridges at roost on the 

 ground, he would raise his gun in an equally slow and 

 careful manner. As a partridge is a small bird, and 

 stands at about a shilling in the poacher's catalogue, 

 he does not care to risk a shot at one, but likes to 

 get several at once. This he can do in the spring, 

 when the birds have paired and remain so near to- 

 gether, and again in the latter part of the summer, when 

 the coveys are large, not having yet been much broken 

 up by the sportsmen. These large coveys, having 

 enjoyed an immunity from disturbance all through the 

 summer, wandering at their own will among clover 

 and corn, are not at all difficult to approach, and a shot 

 at them through a gap in a hedge will often bring 

 down four or five. Later on the poacher takes them 

 at roost. They roost on the ground in a circle, heads 

 outwards, much in the same position as the eggs of a 

 lapwing. The spot is marked ; and at night, having 

 crept up near enough, the poacher fires at the spot 

 itself rather than at the birds, with a gun loaded with a 

 moderate charge of powder, but a large quantity of shot, 

 that it may spread wide. On moderately light nights 



