1 8 The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



of knowledge which will serve him in good 

 stead in his subsequent protest against the 

 Game Laws. 



Almost every young rustic who develops into 

 a poacher has some such outdoor education as 

 that sketched above. He has about him 

 much ready animal ingenuity, and is capable 

 of almost infinite resource. His snares and 

 lines are constructed with his pocket knife, out 

 of material he finds ready to hand in the woods. 

 He early learns to imitate the call of the game 

 birds, so accurately as to deceive even the 

 birds themselves ; and his weather-stained 

 clothes seem to take on themselves the duns 

 and browns and olives of the woods. A child 

 brought up in the lap of Nature is invariably 

 deeply marked with her impress, and we shall 

 see to what end she has taught him. 



