214} GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



months, when their services were comparatively of 

 little value. Considerable expense is frequently 

 incurred, and much pains taken, in endeavouring 

 to detect the night-shooter who confines his at- 

 tention to the birds themselves, and who, even 

 with every chance in his favour, can only secure 

 his plunder in detail and many accidental circum- 

 stances may lead to his discovery and punishment 

 while great facilities are blindly afforded to the 

 sneaking miscreant who plies his trade during the 

 season of incubation, and carries off with pro- 

 voking impunity a future family of pheasants or 

 partridges in the bottom of his pocket or in the 

 crown of his hat. 



Again, to say nothing of his senseless and 

 cold-blooded persecution of many innocent birds 

 at this time of year such as the woodpecker, the 

 cuckoo, and the nightjar the keeper is too apt 

 to rely on his gun alone for the destruction of 

 those which are the natural enemies of game, as 

 well as of others whose depredations in that way 

 are but partial, but whose character may never- 

 theless have been compromised by an occasional 

 peccadillo. Accordingly, the fowling-piece is 

 seldom out of his hands during the breeding 

 season. Instead of showing himself on the out- 

 skirts of his beat at irregular periods and when 

 least expected, after having visited his traps in 



