RAIDERS AND ' MOUCHERS.' 157 



;^loo worth or more in the season, have pecuHar oppor- 

 tunities for conveying poached animals, carefully stowed 

 for them in a ditch on their route. This fact having crept 

 out has induced gentlemen to remove these rabbit con- 

 tracts from local men, and to prefer purchasers from a 

 distance, who must take some time to get acquainted with 

 the district poachers. 



The raiders, who come in gangs armed with guns and 

 shoot in the preserves, are usually the scum of manufac- 

 turing towns, led or guided by a man expelled "through 

 his own bad conduct from the village, and who has a 

 knowledge of the ground. These gangs display no skill ; 

 relying on their numbers, arms, and known desperation of 

 character to protect them from arrest, as it does in nine 

 cases out of ten. Keepers and policemen cannot be ex- 

 pected to face such brutes as these fellows ; they do some- 

 times, however, and get shattered with shot 



The ' mouchers ' sneak about the hedgerows on Sun- 

 days with lurcher dogs, and snap up a rabbit or a hare ; 

 they do not do much damage except near great towns, 

 where they are very numerous. Shepherds, also, occasion- 

 ally mouch — their dogs being sometimes very expert ; 

 and ploughmen set wires in the gateways or gaps where 

 they have noticed the track of a hare, but it is only for 

 their own eating, and is not of much consequence in com- 

 parison with the work of the real local professional. 

 These regular hands form a class which are probably more 



