148 SPORT IN EUROPE 



lowlands it consists of the more harmless form of nettin<4' or snaring-, 



but in Bavaria, Silesia, Posen, and Prussia, where biy 

 Poaching. 



game is preserved, shooting at sight is the practice and 



often a necessity. Thirty years ago, when it was the custom to 



punish a keeper for manslaughter, if he could not prove that he 



had been fired at first, deaths were frequent. Of late years the 



keeper generally gets off free, if his adversary is hit in front and 



is known to be a poacher ; hence matters have improved greatly. 



The Deutsche J agdschutzverein (Association of Game Preservers) has 



also of late done a great deal towards keeping down poaching by 



giving pensions to widows of keepers killed on duty, premiums in 



money, and, more valuable still, handsome presents to such as behaved 



with coolness and bravery. 



The most dangerous part in this respect is on the frontier between 



Bavaria and Tyrol, where the well-preserved chamois and stag shoots 



of Bavaria were for centuries the aim of the daring Tyrolese border 



inhabitants. In all well-managed shoots vermin, in- 

 Vermin. 



eluding foxes, stray cats and dogs, badgers, stoats, birds 



of prey, and crows, are trapped and shot on a large scale, substantial 



premiums being paid to the keepers, and it is only in this way possible 



to get the customary large bags of hares and pheasants. 



For the benefit of English readers it may be said that there is no 



territory in Germany where free shooting is to be had, and that all 



land is preserved, though of course not all to the same 



Preservation t^i 1 r n r- 11 



and Rents extent. 1 he law 01 all German states vests the shoot- 

 ing rights in the property of the soil without any sub- 

 division by ground game acts and the like, but as farms are nearly all 



