66 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



bird as choosing to pair). A French writer on sport, 

 M. Audot, recognises three methods of poaching 

 pheasants in France. As for the first, ' il consiste, 

 lorsqu'ils ont remarque I'arbre ou se perche un faisan 

 pour passer la nuit, ce qui est trfes facile, puisqu'il 

 se decfele lui-meme par son cri, a brftler une meche 

 soufree, qu'ils attachent au bout d'un baton, afin de 

 I'elever, et de faire arriver plus vite au faisan la vapeur 

 qui s'en exhale. Elle I'^tourdit tellement qu'il chan- 

 celle bientot sur sa branche, ct torn be enfin au pied 

 de I'ajbre.' There will be more to say about this ruse 

 in the next chapter. 



Another method named by M. Audot requires the 

 use of snares. He informs us that, in order to ascer- 

 tain whether the pheasants really frequent the runs attri- 

 buted to them in the coverts, it is advisable to sprinkle 

 some oats or other grain in the supposed tracks of 

 these birds. If the poacher finds that this bait is 

 consumed by the pheasants, he proceeds to set a 

 series of horsehair nooses in their runs. These are 

 made of twenty-four hairs plaited together, and are 

 placed at proper distances apart. One is hung up- 

 right and the next horizontally ; the success of this 

 device is increased by the precaution of stopping up all 

 the gaps and holes with bushes, except those in which 

 snares are set. Some more corn is then sprinkled 



