BIRDS' NESTS. 219 



rally brought to me, that I may tell its name. 

 The gentry often employ me to set up such 

 things for them ; but if anything uncommon 

 is brought by any one who does not want to 

 have it, I offer a trifle for it, and when I have 

 stuffed it, I either keep it myself, or sell it, if I 

 can get a customer. Bill Johnson must have 

 known that very well, and thought, I suppose, 

 that I should be sure to give a shilling for so 

 large a bird as a pheasant/' 



" Well/' said the magistrate, " what hap- 

 pened then ? " 



" Why, your worship, all at once it occurred 

 to me that it was unlikely that he should have 

 a pheasant in his possession by honest means, 

 at any time of the year, and that it was cer- 

 tainly contrary to law that he should have one 

 now in the egging season; and if that were so, 

 I thought it would be my duty to find out, if 

 I could, how he came by it ; so I said, 'But I 

 must see it first, and hear where you got it/ 

 Upon this he opened a paper parcel, and took 



