ON THE THEFT OF LIVE GAME. Ill 



fire and fall back as quickly as they can, shooting 

 on their way back if they pass under a pheasant ; 

 after that they decamp^ if not caught by the 

 keepers, with their booty as fast as they can. 

 Thus, supposing there is no ^^set watch" out, 

 tlie whole thing is over in half-an-hour, and by 

 tlie time that the keeper in bed has got his boots 

 on, the scoundrels" have departed. 



NoAV, in this hurried attack — for I have insjpected 

 the ground on the following day — there is very 

 seldom a valuable booty obtained; and for this 

 reason — many of the pheasants are, of necessity, 

 at such short distances from the gun, to enable 

 the thief to see them, that they are blown beyond 

 all possibility of sale for cooking, many of them 

 fall into briars .where they are not found, and some 

 of them have life enough left to run away. I have 

 known these gangs to bring a dog with them to 

 find their game, and, if I may judge of the mass 

 of feathers, tails and all, that this dog pulled out, 

 what between the dog and short distances, there 

 could not have been many birds fit for sale. 



These nocturnal gangs are now very rare since 

 the establishment of the Police Force, and the nidit 

 shooting is generally confined to one or two thieves, 



