170 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



eyeing his old single-barrel wistfully for a few 

 moments the tears began to trickle down his 

 weather-beaten face, and he walked sorrowfully 

 away. But this is only one side of the picture. 

 In addition to thwarting the incursions of men who 

 go poaching in response to natural instincts, game- 

 keepers, especially near large industrial centres, have 

 to face gangs of despicably cowardly ruffians who 

 know next- to -nothing of the habits of the game 

 they go after, and are impelled by exactly the 

 same motives as would send them to house- 

 breaking. 



As a result of various encounters with this class 

 of poacher, the gamekeeper whom I have just men- 

 tioned had his hands scarred from savage bites and 

 his temples disfigured by kicks from inhuman 

 brutes, besides carrying in his body more than 

 forty pellets of shot deliberately fired at him by 

 a dastard whom he was pressing too closely in a 

 fair open chase. 



Partridges are very curious-tempered birds, 

 and will often forsake a nest full of eggs for no 

 other reason, apparently, than that it has been 

 discovered. By careful stalking, we secured the 

 picture on the preceding page of a partridge as 

 she sat on her eggs in a hedge bank, without 

 disturbing her. 



The birds are poached in various ways, and in 

 most of them some well known natural habit is 

 turned to account in order to encompass their 

 destruction. 



In the evening the mother of a covey calls her 

 chickens together to " jug " in a small circle with 

 their tails all turned inwards towards the centre. 

 The old male generally sleeps a little apart by 

 himself, and acts sentinel ; but in spite of his 



