154 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



the carriers are the channel of communication ; and 

 there is no doubt the lower class of game dealers in 

 the provincial towns get a good deal in this way.. 

 The London dealer, who receives large consignments 

 at once, has of course no means of distinguishing 

 poached from other game. The men who purchase 

 the rabbits ferreted by the keepers during the winter 

 in the woods and preserves, and who often buy ioo/. 

 worth or more in the season, have peculiar opportu- 

 nities for conveying poached animals, carefully stowed 

 for them in a ditch on their route. This fact having 

 crept out has induced gentlemen to remove these 

 rabbit contracts from local men, and to prefer pur- 

 chasers from a distance, who must take some time to 

 get acquainted with the district poachers. 



The raiders, who come in gangs armed with guns 

 and shoot in the preserves, are usually the scum of 

 manufacturing towns, led or guided by a man ex- 

 pelled through his own bad conduct from the village, 

 and who has a knowledge of the ground. These 

 gangs display no skill ; relying on their numbers, 

 arms, and known desperation of character to protect 

 them from arrest, as it does in nine cases out of ten. 

 Keepers and policemen cannot be expected to face 

 such brutes as these fellows ; they do sometimes, 

 however, and get shattered with shot. 



