ON THE THEFT OE LIVE GAME. 113 



Slid I dangerous things a wood can be made, if well 

 enclosed to keep out cattle, as ineligible a spot for 

 a niidniglit walk as can well be imagined. The 

 owner of a Avood has as much right to put large 

 tenter-hooks in his trees, if he likes it, as he has to 

 put them on the top of his palings or walls ; and if 

 hooks are suspended on stout cords, combined with 

 deeply dug holes and growers to spring up when 

 touched, the wood thus treated will not be much 

 troubled with intruders by night or day. How- 

 ever good it may be to have these adjuncts for 

 the maintenance of privacy, in my own mind 

 there is nothing like a force kept on watch on 

 every succeeding night. 



Wires set for game must be left, at least for a 

 time, and this, of course, affords the chance of the 

 keepers finding them and being ready for the return 

 of the intruder. AVhere there is game, there are 

 stacks or feeding-places for the pheasants, and at 

 these stacks, during the day, by snares much mis- 

 chief may be done when the ground is badly looked 

 after by the keeper. 



I have known stacks visited by a poaching thief 

 in the day, and he will very likely lie hidden in 

 the cover till tlie keeper pays a visit, perhaps to 



VOL. II. I 



