220 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



precautions and continual watching, long-netting 

 may be made difficult by turning cattle at night into 

 the grass fields bordering the woods. Not only will 

 the cattle be sure to take an inquisitive interest in 

 the long-netting, but they will have something to say 

 to the dogs used for driving in, and will quite upset 

 their work. In one place some poachers were baffled 

 after a curious fashion. A local gang had set 

 up some seven hundred yards of new netting, worth 

 about ten guineas, and had gone off to round -up the 

 rabbits, when another gang from a distant part of 

 the county arrived on the scene. The curses they 

 heaped on their luck soon gave way to blessings 

 at any rate, they were quick to see the chance of 

 poaching something more valuable than rabbits. 

 They rolled up the new nets and fled. Then the men 

 of the first gang returned in the wake of the rabbits, 

 which had found nothing to impede their rush to 

 cover. Curses were deeper and stronger than those 

 breathed before. The men decided in the end to 

 put their case and themselves unreservedly into the 

 hands of the police, who telephoned to the nearest 

 railway station, and captured the poachers with 

 their poaching brethren's gear and their own rolled 

 up in blankets. 



f * * 



Why birds and beasts flock, no doubt, is for mutual 

 protection from natural foes. One has heard of 

 swallows nesting on a cliff beneath an eagle's eyrie, yet 



