Poachers and Poaching. 25 



confidence, and knows that silence is essential 

 to success. He points to the " Mole," the 

 mouldy sobriquet of a compatriot as an in- 

 stance of one who tells poaching secrets to 

 village gossips. The " Mole " spends most of 

 his time in the county gaol, and is now under- 

 going incarceration for the fifty-seventh time. 

 Our " Otter " has certainly been caught, but the 

 occasions of his capture form but a small per- 

 centage of the times he has been " out." He 

 is a healthy example of pure animalism, and his 

 rugged nature has much in common with the 

 animals and birds. As an accurately detailed 

 reflection of nature, his monograph of any one 

 of our British game-birds would excel even 

 those of Mr. Jefferies himself; yet of culture 

 he hasn't an idea. He admires the pencilled 

 plumage of a dead woodcock, and notes how 

 marvellously it conforms to the grey-brown 

 herbage among which it lies. So, too, with 

 the eggs of birds. He remarks on the con- 

 formation to environment - - of partridge and 

 pheasant, the olive colour to the dead oak 

 leaves ; of snipe and plover to the mottled 

 marsh ; of duck and water fowl to the pale 

 green reeds. 



As to his morality with regard to the game 

 laws, it would be difficult to detect exactly 

 where he draws the line. He lives for these to 

 be repealed, but his native philosophy tells him 



