8o The Confessions of a Poacher. 



way. My custom was to carefully eschew the 

 preserves, and look up all outlying birds. I never 

 went abroad without a pocketful of corn, and 

 day by day enticed the wandered birds further 

 and further away. This accomplished, pheasants 

 may be snared with hair nooses, or taken in 

 spring traps. One of my commonest and most 

 successful methods with wandered birds was to 

 light brimstone beneath the trees in which they 

 roosted. The powerful fumes soon overpowered 

 them, and they came flopping down the trees 

 one by one. This method has the advantage 

 of silence, and if the night be dead and still, 

 is rarely detected. Away from the preserves, 

 time was never taken into account in my 

 plans, and I could work systematically. I was 

 content with a brace of birds at a time, and 

 usually got most in the end, with least chance 

 of capture. 



I have already spoken at some length of my 

 education in field and wood-craft. An im- 

 portant (though at the time unconscious) 

 part of this was minute observation of the 

 haunts and habits of all kinds of game ; and 



