Poachers Hide their Tools. 167 



backwards and forwards, following the course of the 

 furrows. 



The keeper's eye is ever on the alert for the 

 poacher's wires ; and where the grass is tall to discover 

 these is often a tedious task, since he may go within a 

 few yards and yet pass them. The ditches and the 

 great bramble-bushes are carefully scanned, because in 

 these the poacher often conceals his gun, nets, or 

 game, even when not under immediate apprehension 

 of capture. The reason is that his cottage may per- 

 haps be suddenly searched : if not by authority, the 

 policeman on some pretext or other may unexpectedly 

 lift the latch or peer into the outhouses, and feathers 

 and fur are apt to betray their presence in the most 

 unexpected manner. One single feather, one single 

 fluffy little piece of fur overlooked, is enough to ruin 

 him, for these are things of which it is impossible to 

 give an acceptable explanation. 



In dry weather the poacher often hides his imple- 

 ments : especially is this the case after a more than 

 usually venturesome foray, when he knows that his 

 house is tolerably certain to be overhauled and all 

 his motions watched. A hollow tree is a common 

 resource — the pollard willow generally becomes hol- 

 low in its old age — and with a piece of the decaying 

 1 touchwopd ' or a strip of dead bark his tools are 



