CHAPTER XV 



TRESPASSERS AND POACHERS 



A lady and her dog Primrose-pickers Egg-poachers Wilful 

 destruction of eggs A lump of coal Gipsies Inferences An 

 old shepherd Unsuspected poachers Plausible excuses of 

 poachers Poachers and policy. 



TRESPASSERS are a greater worry to the keeper than 

 poachers at least, I found them so. One reason 

 is that trespassers are so much more numerous than 

 poachers, and the loss of game they cause, by dis- 

 turbing it, is much greater ; another, that the 

 keeper is not in a position to get the satisfaction 

 from trespassers that he can from downright 

 poachers. In effect, a trespasser often does far 

 more harm than a genuine poacher. 



The lady with a dog is the despair of keepers. 

 I had come up with a lady whose dog was dis- 

 porting himself among a lot of sitting partridges 

 and pheasants, and with polite warmth had called 

 her attention to the doings of the dear creature. 

 She deprecated my suggestions with indignation, 

 saying ' that her dog was a pure-bred Canadian 

 boar-hound, and would scorn to hunt common game.' 

 My own opinion was that he was a pure-bred 



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