WATER POACHERS 201 



taken red-handed by the watchers. The vocation 

 of these latter is a hard one. They work at night, 

 and require to be most on the alert during rough and 

 wet weather in the winter, when the fish are spawn- 

 ing. Sometimes they must remain still for hours 

 in freezing clothes; and even in summer they not 

 unfrequently lie all night in dank and wet herbage. 

 They see the night side of Nature, and many of them 

 are fairly good naturalists. If a lapwing gets up and 

 screams in the darkness they understand how to 

 interpret the sound, and they know the meaning of 

 a hare rushing wildly past. It must be confessed, 

 however, that at all points the fish poacher is cleverer 

 and of readier wit than the river watcher. 



