Poachers and Poaching. 



which the hares always made. To drive them 

 the dog was to range the field, entering it at a 

 point furthest away from the gate. Silence was 

 essential to success. To aid the dog, the poacher 

 bent his back in the road at a yard from the wall. 

 The dog retired, took a mighty spring, and, 

 barely touching his master's shoulders, bounded 

 over the fence without touching. From that 

 field five hares were killed. 



It need hardly be remarked that the intelligent 

 poacher is always a naturalist. The signs of wind 

 and weather he knows as it were by heart, and 

 this is essential to his silent trade. The rise and 

 wane of the moon, the rain-bringing tides, the 

 local migration of birds these and a hundred 

 other things are marked in his unwritten calendar. 

 His out-door life has made him quick and taught 

 him of much ready animal ingenuity. He has 

 imbibed an immense amount of knowledge of the 

 life of the woods and fields, and he is that one 

 man in a thousand who has accuracy of eye and 

 judgment sufficient to interpret nature aright. 



It has been already remarked that the poacher 

 is nothing if not a specialist. As yet we have 

 spoken only of the "moucher" who directs his 

 attention to fur. But if there is less scope for 

 field ingenuity in the taking of some of our game 

 birds, there is always the possibility of more 

 wholesale destruction. This arises from the fact 

 of the birds being gregarious. Partridges roost 



