96 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



ground except the ruts made by the rude stilts, lived 

 for a long time without any suspicion, never guessing 

 that a poacher was daily thinning out the number of 

 their birds. The fellow carried on his malpractices 

 for a long time with complete success. At last there 

 came a day when the keepers paid a surprise visit to 

 his house, in search of some wood which had been 

 purloined. As luck would have it, they stumbled 

 across his stilts, and the secret leaked out. 



This very individual sometimes dared to poach in 

 the forest in broad daylight, almost under the eyes of 

 the keepers. Like Peace, the English burglar, this 

 cunning Frenchman was an adept in the art of 

 ' making up,' and could disguise himself by painting 

 in imaginary wrinkles with such skill and deftness that 

 no one could take him for anybody but an old beggar 

 woman. He never appeared to the public to be 

 doing anything but collecting sticks ; all the same, he 

 took care to carry a small fowling-piece underneath 

 his petticoat. It fared ill with any game that he came 

 across ; but he was too adroit to be caught flagrante 

 delicto. If a keeper heard a shot in the forest, and 

 ran up to the spot, he found nobody to apprehend ; 

 only, at the end of the nearest cross-road, he might 

 meet an old crone, carrying a bundle of fagots or of 

 dead heather. ' Please give a trifle to poor Gertrude,' 



