IC2 Poachers and Poaching. 



the obtaining of these is most interesting. Reed- 

 sparrow and reed-wren are pretty provincial 

 names of the bird, each expressive enough. 



A powerful perfume rises from the ground- 

 weeds, and stooping low, we detect dame's 

 violet. The purple Hesperis matronalis emits 

 its sweet smell only at night, and is fertilised by 

 moths. This, too, holds good of the evening 

 campion (Ly chins vespertina}, only its scent is 

 fainter. For this', however, the colour of its 

 white petals amply compensates, as they are 



more easilv seen 'in the darkness. Further on, 



j 



we detect Orchis bifolia, which is also particu- 

 larly sweet, and with the same object. All these 

 emit fragrance at night, and are fertilised only by 

 night-flying insects. A crash ! the underwood 

 is rudely torn, and a form disappears in the 

 darkness. The crackling of boughs and dead 

 sticks mark on the stillness of night the poacher's 

 sinuous path through the woods. Soon his old 

 black bitch slinks by the hedge, clears the fence at 

 a bound, and doggedly follows her master's foot- 

 steps. Crake answers crake from the meadows 

 as they have done through the night. Now they 

 are at our feet, now far out yonder. The night 

 call of the partridge comes from the gorse, and 

 the first pheasant crows from the larch branches. 

 On the hill we wade through a herd of recum- 

 bent heifers, their sketchy forms sharply outlined 



