THE FIRST 179 



Nowadays, the First on a large shoot passes much 

 as other days, for October has usurped the prestige 



of September, and the big partridge drives 

 First are reserve( * until that month. But when 



the keeper goes home to his tea on the First, 

 his wife, with ever-ready sympathy, is likely enough 

 to notice " summat's up." There is a scowl on the 

 tanned face, and a vindictive look in the keen eyes, 

 and the way in which the thirsty throat is flushed 

 with a pint or so of tea suggests a forlorn attempt 

 to drown trouble. At last the murder is out : " They 

 pot-hunters," growls the keeper, " they has bin and 

 wiped out half my birds." Shots have been heard 

 all day near his boundary ; on the neighbouring small 

 shoot the First has not been allowed to go by un- 

 honoured. 



With the First come poachers, anxious to win the 

 big rewards paid for the earliest birds to reach the 



market. Netting is not so prevalent as of 

 Birds ^' kut more of it is done than most people 



imagine, since netting is practised in the 

 dark, and in fields easily entered from public roads. 

 The best preventive is to dress the fields in which 

 the birds chiefly jug stubbles, pastures, and fallows 

 with small pieces of tangled wire-netting, and small 

 bushes, left lying on the ground, so that they may 

 roll with the net, and entangle it the more hope- 

 lessly. A sneaking method of poaching is to set 



