SHOOTING THE PHEASANT 



CHAPTER V 



POLICY AND PROTECTION 



Certain points may be suggested for the protection 

 of a stock of game, attention to which may tend to 

 neutralise the efforts, if not to minimise the number, 

 of the poaching fraternity. 



The poet, as we know, is born, not made ; the 

 cook also, at least in so far as roasting is concerned, 

 lays claim to congenital genius. But the poacher, 

 though often ' born,' is equally often ' made ' by cir- 

 cumstances. The born poacher is, in reality, a keen 

 sportsman and lover of nature, and as such we, who 

 are or would like to be considered both, cannot but 

 feel sympathy with and secretly admire him. Only we 

 selfishly wish that he had been born in some part of the 

 country remote from our own property, and would 

 exercise his admirable instincts upon somebody else's 

 pheasants and coverts rather than our own. 



I am all for clemency towards this class, and, 

 what is more important, for taking them in hand 



