POACHING PARTRIDGES 71 



specialist. He cannot afford, he thinks, to waste 

 time and trouble on matters connected only indirectly 

 with his hobbies. If he means business, he ignores 

 the existence of any creatures except those which 

 he plans to capture. His opportunities for obtaining 

 a close acquaintance with natural history in the fields 

 remain all uncultivated. It must not be supposed, 

 however, that his knowledge of his own particular 

 science is superficial. Even if his calculations are 

 sometimes at fault, he is generally more than a match 

 for the average game-watcher ; nor does he expose 

 himself to any charge of half-heartedness, but works 

 his wicked will with grim determination. Keepers, 

 on the other hand, though excellent fellows in the 

 main, are usually too much concerned in rearing a 

 big show of game to exercise their thoughts on 

 matters external to their trade. 



Mr. Borrer tells an amusing tale of a culprit 

 being haled before a bench of rural magistrates on a 

 charge of having appropriated a partridge's egg. The 

 witness, a gamekeeper, had in his hand a chaffinch's 

 nest, containing several small bird's eggs and a large 

 white one. liixe chairman told him to hand up the 

 nest to him, and asked which was the partridge's egg. 

 ' The big 'un,' replied the keeper, with contemptuous 

 assurance ; on which he was asked whether he could 



