Pheasants Protection. 59 



have dogs trained to do so. The general idea is that the 

 snares or springes are placed at one end or side of the 

 covert. This is erroneous ; most execution is done by laying 

 them about the centre. By this means, the birds are more 

 thoroughly and safely driven backwards and forwards, which 

 is often done several times in succession. In the early 

 part of the year, when birds are being bought, they are 

 taken in fixed springes alive, otherwise in the common 

 snare. 



Plain snaring may take place anywhere, where there is an 

 outlying pheasant or two. Along hedges, on the sides 

 of the brooks and wet ditches where the birds drink, or 

 around the feeding spots. This kind of poaching is easy, 

 expeditious, and wholesale, so the watch kept on the coverts 

 must be continuous. Alarm guns are very useful by way 

 of prevention in alarming the poachers, and giving timely 

 notice to the keepers of the kind of work being carried on. 



Netting is similarly practised. A long net is spread, and 

 the pheasants driven into it by dog or man. It is not 

 so effective as hingling, but it is a murderous procedure 

 in experienced hands. 



Egg-stealing is a class of poaching for the existence of 

 which there is no necessary reason. The dishonesty of 

 dealers, and the baneful practice of buying eggs from anyone 

 and anywhere, are the principal causes. If those preservers 

 who require eggs, whether it be a dozen or a thousand, would 

 only buy from recognised reliable people, there would be 

 no demand for stolen eggs, and this description of poaching 

 would cease. Or, in a minor way, this might be effected by 

 gamekeepers co-operating to put a check upon it, in refusing 



