176 The Amateur Poacher. 



loth to give up a place that has a kind of poaching 

 reputation. As if in revenge for the interference, 

 they have so ransacked the marsh every spring for the 

 eggs of the waterfowl that the wild duck will not lay 

 there, but seek spots safer from such enemies. The 

 marsh is left to the coots and moorhens that from 

 thence stock the brooks. 



