CHAPTER XL 



FIELD AND COVERT POACHERS. 



As compared with the doings of human 

 "mouchers," there is a class of field poachers 

 whose depredations are tenfold more destruc- 

 tive. These are nature's poachers, and their 

 vigils never cease. In season and out, by night 

 and by day, they harry the things of the field and 

 wood. Playing as some say a questionable part 

 in the economy of nature, they play a very 

 certain part in the economy of our game, both 

 winged and furred. Strange anomaly it is, that 

 whilst our game stock could not be preserved a 

 year without their agency, the hand of every one 

 is against them. So long as nature is founded 

 on its present beneficent plan, so long will the 

 swallow be speared by the shrike, and every 

 wood be the scene of plunder and prey. Nature 

 is one with rapine, and the close observance of 

 every woodland way only emphasises the fact. 

 Every sylvan thing is but a unit in a possible 

 chain of destruction. The bee-bird captures the 



