PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 179 



other parts until they have five or six out, which they use 

 with great dexterity, finally touching one of the quails with 

 the feather, which adheres to him. They then withdraw 

 the rod, arm it again, and touch three or four more in the 

 same manner, before they attempt to snare any. 



In Nubia the village dogs, the lurchers of the White Nile 

 poacher, are trained with much skill to run down and capture 

 partridges alive in the furrows of the cultivated land. In 

 Turkestan, sand-grouse, a species closely resembling English 

 partridges in flight and habits, are taken by cotton drag-nets, 

 worked almost exactly on the principle of those used by 

 night along our own covert sides. These drag-nets are not 

 the only methods of illegitimate sport our poachers know. 

 In the eastern and southern counties of England, a peculiar 

 sort of spring snare is used, set in the sandy spots of the 

 fields, where partridges dust, whole coveys being taken 

 thereby. 



Sometimes, if the little bird is scared or wild, then a 

 gang will take a change from stubble or plough, making a 

 raid under the stars upon the woodlands. " On clear, bright 

 winter nights," says a knowing authority, "when the full 

 moon is almost at the zenith, and the definition of tree and 

 bough in the flood of light seems to equal, if not to exceed, 

 that of the noonday, some poaching used to be accomplished 

 with the aid of a horsehair noose on the end of a long slender 

 wand, the loop being insidiously slipped over the bird's head, 

 usually a pheasant, while at roost. By constant practice a 

 wonderful dexterity may be acquired at this trick. Men will 

 snare almost any bird in broad moonlight." Pheasants are 

 frequently taken by poachers in loops set in ditch bottoms 

 and wood fences ; but as the pheasant would probably with- 

 draw his head were the noose made of wire, it is formed of 

 plaited horsehair, and is then very successful. In fact, at 

 home as abroad, " game " by no means sleeps secure until 

 the shield of the law is formally withdrawn from it. Many 

 a yellow stubble is swept, and many a coppice of hazel and 



