TRESPASSERS AND POACHERS ‘241 
keeper. Of course, all nests must be found in day- 
light ; but your cunning poacher knows that, having 
marked them, it is just as easy to fetch the eggs at 
night, and a great deal safer. It is well for a keeper 
not to put too much faith in persons who tell him 
of the whereabouts of setty nests only. Setty eggs 
are no good to the egg-poacher. By the end of 
June the keeper has heard quite enough about nests 
and eggs and birds that ‘sets ’ard’ to last him till 
eggs come again. 
Where there are hares there will be people only 
too willing to look after them. I had many hundreds 
of hares to look after, and never lacked a little 
assistance. There was an old shepherd who was 
not above ‘doing his little bit,’ though he was a 
most excellent friend in respect to winged game, 
and genuinely took care of the leverets he found 
among the victuals of his sheep. So, as I had to 
put up with him, there was nothing to be gained by 
being too hard on him. His favourite plan was to 
set a wire or two just off our ground. On one 
occasion, about Christmas-time, I removed a hare 
from a wire that I felt sure must be his. When at 
last the old chap was leaving, for putting in too 
much time at the pub, I advised him to shut his eyes 
whenever he came across a hare’s run in his next 
place. ‘Why, I never set e’er a wire in my life,’ 
he said indignantly. I suggested that he should 
refer his memory to a run across the corner of a 
16 
