26 Poachers and Poaching. 



that when this time comes game will have become 

 well nigh extinct. Upon the Ground Game Act 

 he looks with mingled feelings, for, after all, are 

 not rabbits and hares the chief product of his 

 nights ? The farmers now get these, and the 

 poacher's field is limited. They engage him, 

 maybe, to stay the ravages upon clover and 

 young wheat, or to thin the rabbits from out the 

 pastures. He propitiates the farmer in many 

 ways. Occasionally in the morning the farm 

 lad finds half-a-dozen rabbits or a hare dropped 

 behind the barn door. How these came there 

 no one knows nor asks. The country attorney 

 is sometimes submitted to a like indignity. In 

 crossing land the poacher is careful to close 

 gates after him, and he never breaks down 

 fences. He assists cattle and sheep which he 

 finds in extremity, and leaves word of the mishap 

 at the farm. Is it likely that the farmer will 

 dog the steps of the man who protects his pro- 

 perty, and pays tolls for doing it ? 



And it frequently happens that the poacher 

 is not less popular with the village community 

 at large than with those whose interests he serves. 

 It is even asserted that more than one of the 

 county Justices have, in some sort, a sneaking 

 affection for him. The same wild spirit and 

 love of sport take him to the fields and woods 

 as his more fortunate brethren to the moor and 

 covert. It is untrue, as has been said, that the 



