Partridges Protection. 97 



out a ticket, and who go to gate-money races without 

 paying. You may fine them, and give them a month on 

 the treadmill ; it has no effect. At the first chance they 

 are at it again, and we can only appreciate the persistence 

 which prompts them. The partridge poacher who works for 

 the money it brings in does not care for shooting. Netting 

 and snaring are more to his taste, and a remarkably good 

 hand he is at the business as a rule. Crafty to a degree, 

 he generally makes the game pay literally. His netting 

 is mostly a night performance, snaring a day one ; he 

 knows where every covey "jucks" and can act accordingly. 

 Leaving his house about midnight, he meets a companion ; 

 their apparatus a dog and a net, the former a sheep dog of 

 dilapidated aspect, which points in a manner that would 

 astound the field trial judges ; the latter probably an old 

 salmon net, possibly one made on purpose. The field 

 reached, the dog is put on to range, a handkerchief or a 

 piece of white cloth round his neck. The men know 

 about where the birds are and act promptly, and in a few 

 minutes have secured a whole covey enough for one night, 

 one would think. Not a bit of it ; off again ! and so on, till 

 perhaps they have as many birds as they can carry home. 

 Then, again, they pull a long net across the fields, and catch 

 the birds in this manner. Any field serves, from a fallow to 

 a wheat field in full ear. 



To prevent this mode of netting, all fields where there are 

 partridges must be "bushed." Bushing consists of fixing 

 any kind of obstacles in the ground by which the net may 

 be torn, caught or entangled. Bushes may consist of any 

 kind of thorny shrub, branches of black and white thorn, 



H 



