508 Practical Game Preserving. 



will do one another in the destruction of game must prove 

 disastrous. 



Further, there are some well-to-do men who think nothing 

 of doing a little poaching now and then, chiefly in localities 

 sparsely populated, where keepers are scarce, and from 

 whence the records of their misbehaviour are not likely to 

 reach their acquaintances. Their favourite plan is to ask 

 permission to take a short cut through one's ground, and 

 " presume Mr. So-and-so will not object to their taking a 

 shot at anything which may cross the path, provided the 

 game is brought up to the House ; it is merely the sport 

 that is desired. " The best answer to this sort of people is 

 to request them to keep clear of the place altogether. 



Upon the subject of egg-stealing we have already spoken, 

 and for this kind of poaching, game preserving, as now carried 

 on, is to a great extent responsible, for it has largely become 

 the fashion to judge the season by the quantity of game 

 killed rather than by the sport afforded. Consequently the 

 demand for eggs is so large that it has caused an almost 

 universal style of poaching ; for, of the number of pheasants' 

 & c -> e gg s bought, not one-half are sold by the owners of 

 pheasants, the rest being supplied by local dealers, who 

 get them from the stealers. We think we are well within 

 the mark in saying that it will never be possible to stamp 

 out this practice until the Excise takes the matter up, and 

 includes the selling of game eggs under the provisions 

 regulating the sale of game, imposing a 2 licence. 



The prevention of poaching is dependent, in the main, 

 upon the gamekeeper; but, as we have tried to show, 

 it depends also upon the proprietor of the preserve to 



