H2 The Amateur Poacher. 



had their legs smashed. Then the tenant charged the 

 keeper with trespassing ; the other retorted that he 

 decoyed the pheasants by leaving peas till they 

 dropped out of the pods. In short, their hatred was 

 always showing itself in some act of guerrilla warfare. 

 As we approached the part of the woods fixed on, two 

 of the keeper's assistants, carrying thick sticks, stepped 

 from behind a hedge, and reported that they had kept 

 a good watch, and the old fox (the tenant) had not 

 been seen that morning. So these fellows went round 

 to beat, and the guns were got ready. 



Sometimes you could hear the pheasants running 

 before they reached the low-cropped hawthorn hedge 

 at the side of the plantation ; sometimes they came so 

 quietly as to appear suddenly out from the ditch, having 

 crept through. Others came with a tremendous rush 

 through the painted leaves, rising just before the hedge; 

 and now and then one flew screaming high over the tops 

 of the firs and ash-poles, his glossy neck glowing in the 

 sunlight and his long tail floating behind. These last 

 pleased me most, for when the shot struck the great 

 bird going at that rate even death could not at once 

 arrest his progress. The impetus carried him yards, 

 gradually slanting downwards till he rolled in the 

 green rush bunches. 



Then a hare slipped out and ran the gauntlet, and 



