POACHING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 99 



to this — that they occasionally smoke pheasants, but 

 more as a lark than as a remunerative piece of busi- 

 ness. The apparatus required is nothing more than a 

 long bamboo, an empty tin, such as is used to hold 

 condensed milk, and a httle sulphur. The latter is 

 placed in the tin, which hangs on a nail at the end of 

 the bamboo. Several lengths of bamboo, which fit 

 together, are more easily carried than one long stick. 

 A dark and quiet night is indispensable to the success- 

 ful ' smoking ' of pheasants. If there be any wind, 

 the sulphur fumes would be blown away from the bird. 

 An experienced practitioner is generally told off to 

 work the sulphur box, which must not be held too near 

 the pheasant, for fear the unwonted warmth should 

 disturb the bird. If adroitly handled, the fumes of 

 the burning sulphur ' stove ' or suffocate the victim for 

 the nonce, and it drops to the ground choking. 



Cock pheasants are said to be more wary at their 

 roost than their female companions. Perhaps the 

 latter rely intuitively upon the watchfulness of the 

 male birds. 



Professor Giglioli tells me that poachers in the 

 north of Italy sometimes kill roosting pheasants with 

 a blowtube. I have no experience of such weapons, 

 but no doubt they would be very destructive if skilfully 

 employed. 



