78 The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



keeper, and begins to anticipate the fall of 

 beech and oak mast. In search of this the 

 pheasants make daily journeys, and consume 

 great quantities. They feed principally in the 

 morning ; dust themselves in the roads or 

 turnip-fields at mid-day, and ramble through the 

 woods in the afternoon. And one thing is- 

 certain : That when wandered birds find 

 themselves in outlying copses in the evening 

 they are apt to roost there. As already 

 stated, these were the birds to which I paid 

 my best attention. When wholesale pheasant 

 poaching is prosecuted by gangs, it is in 

 winter, when the trees are bare. Guns, with 

 the barrels filed down, are taken in sacks, 

 and the pheasants are shot where they 

 roost. Their bulky forms stand sharply out- 

 lined against the sky, and they are invariably 

 on the lower branches. If the firing does not 

 immediately bring up the keepers, the game 

 is quickly deposited in bags, and the gang 

 makes off. And it is generally arranged that 

 a light cart is waiting at some remote lane 

 end, so that possible pursuers may be quickly 



