Poachers and Poaching. 505 



" megpies." This is a most annoying kind of poacher, because 

 he is so dark and so modest over his business that one can 

 never catch him. A little snaring, a little trapping, and 

 a great deal of egg-stealing, are his chief accomplishments, 

 and very often his wife or children have to play a part as 

 well in the latter business, particularly in carrying away 

 the eggs when they bring the man's dinner. At night he 

 will often be busy, particularly in the use of a stick, amongst 

 the pheasants in windy weather, when there is a good 

 moon ; or the employment of an air-gun, or one of those 

 complicated contrivances, a poacher's gun, which unscrews 

 into three or four pieces and goes into the inside coat 

 pocket on one side, while it is nicely balanced by the spoil 

 on the other. The net is in his hands a very effective 

 article, and is employed for grouse and partridges. Hares 

 are a speciality, taken with wires and gate-nets in the 

 fields, and bag-nets chiefly in covert. 



Besides the regular poaching labourer there are the men 

 who only occasionally have a turn at poaching. They are 

 generally a great nuisance, because one never knows when 

 they are at their nefarious practice, and they are not worth 

 watching continually. For these kinds of game stealers 

 there is nothing so effective as to lead them to believe 

 that they are always being watched. The keeper should 

 make it his duty, whenever he can, just to drop down 

 upon them suddenly when at work or appear upon the 

 other side of a wall as they are going home or coming to 

 work ; meet them accidentally upon Saturday night, and 

 see them the first thing on the Sunday morning after. 

 Nothing deters them so much as this. 



K K 2 



