The Confessions of a Poacher. 21 



always something abroad, 

 some creature of the 

 fields or woods, which 

 by its voice or move- 

 ments was betrayed. 

 Just as in an old ram- 

 bling house there 

 are always strange 

 noises that cannot 

 be accounted for, so 

 in the night-paths of 

 nature there are in- 

 numerable sounds which can never be localised. 

 To those, however, who pursue night avocations 

 in the country, there are always calls and cries 

 which bespeak life as animate under the night 

 as that of the day. This is attributable to 

 various animals and birds, to beetles, to night- 

 flying insects, even to fish ; and part of the 

 education of the young poacher is to track 

 these sounds to their source. 



I have said that our family was a family of 

 poachers. The old instinct was in us all, 

 though I believe that the same wild spirit 



