The Confessions of a Poacher. 25 



about the higher hills for days, and sometimes 

 we had to stay all night on the mountain. 

 Then we were up with the first gray light in 

 the morning, and generally managed to bring 

 down a few birds. The feathers of these are 

 extremely valuable for fishing, and my father 

 invariably supplied them to the county justices 

 who lived near us. He trained a dog to hunt 

 dotterel, and so find their nests, and in this 

 was most successful more so than an emi- 

 nent naturalist who spent five consecutive 

 summers about the summits of our highest 



mountains, though without ever coming across 

 a nest or seeing the birds. Sometimes we 

 bagged a gaunt heron as it flapped heavily from 



C2 



