I40 A YEAR OF SFORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



In lonely copses, far from the haunts of men, and rarely visited 

 by the keeper more than once in twenty-four hours. Poachers 

 prefer broad daylight for their work. Amid the tangled under- 

 growth or long grass they can mark the runs of pheasants and 

 hares, and learn the way they most frequently go to their feeding- 

 grounds in the neighbouring corn-fields. Somewhere in these runs 

 they set wire snares with a stop loop in each to ensure that what- 

 ever may be caught will not get strangled. They want the 

 pheasants alive if possible. Another trick is to throw up a light 

 fence of twigs and brambles from side to side of the copse, with a 

 series of holes in it just large enough for a pheasant to pass through. 

 In these the sensitive snare is set and the result is nearly always 

 the same. Such a fence, however, requires time for its construction, 

 and the work is generally done at night in readiness for operations at 

 daybreak, when pheasants come down from their perches to feed. 

 A few handfuls of grain artfully distributed do not come amiss, but 

 the Poacher's favourite device is to place himself at one corner of 

 the covert and tap two sticks together lightly, making just sound 

 enough to drive pheasants at a run from him, without alarming 

 them into flight. So he goes from side to side of the copse until 

 he has reason to believe that something is caught in nearly every 

 snare, and then home with a sack full of live game in his cart. Of 

 numberless other tricks, more or less clever, the Poacher is master, 

 but his greatest triumphs are of daring rather than cunning, though 

 the latter quality always comes into play. He likes the keen, 

 frosty air of night when clouds are drifting across the moon. 

 Then, in company with two or three trusty accomplices bearing 

 fowling pieces or air guns, he makes his way to well-stocked 

 coverts, where scores of pheasants are sure to be perching on 



