110 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



a bright niglit, after the first gun has alarmed the 

 Avood, therefore tlie night selected is generally 

 when there is a bright sky but no moon, and a 

 very higli wind to drown as much as possible the 

 villain guns. 



If a gang of these rascals have sallied forth 

 half drunk, and for the time being possessed of 

 Dutch courage, gained at the low beer-shop or 

 public-house, they always select some man among 

 them less drunk than the majority to act as 

 leader, and he is generally a well-known thief. 



If the attack is to be made by the gang on a 

 considerable sized cover, holding many pheasants, 

 these thieves draw up at the verge of tlie cover, 

 and, receiving their orders to keep silence, they 

 all go into the wood together, and proceed in a 

 body through it for a considerable distance. 

 AYlien they have got far enough into the wood, 

 then they halt under some tree or trees where 

 they can see a roosting pheasant ; on that sjDot 

 they leave the first man. The rest of the thieves 

 then retrace their steps, taking up positions under 

 roosting birds, till the last man is posted — all 

 these villains having orders to wait till the last 

 man posted fires ; then all of them have orders to 



