30 'The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



for those of partridges. I know for certain 

 that he often buys eggs (unknowingly, of 

 course) from his master's preserves as well as 

 those of his neighbours. In the hedge bottom, 

 along the covert side, or among broom and 

 gorse, the farm labourer notices a pair of 

 partridges roaming morning after morning. 

 Soon he finds their oak-leaf nest and olive 

 eggs. These the keeper readily buys, winking 

 at what he knows to be dishonest. Plough- 

 boys and farm labourers have peculiarly fa- 

 vourable opportunities for egg poaching. As 

 to pheasants' eggs, if the keeper be an honest 

 man and refuses to buy, there are always large 

 town dealers who will. Once in the coverts 

 pheasants' eggs are easily found. The birds 

 get up heavily from their nests, and go away 

 with a loud whirring of wings. In this species 

 of poaching women and children are largely 

 employed, and at the time the former are os- 

 tensibly gathering sticks, the latter wild flowers. 

 I have known the owner of the " smithy," who 

 was the receiver in our village, send to London 

 in the course of a week a thousand eggs, every 



