Ferrets and the Wild Birds' Protection Act. 165 



almost every neighbourhood there are poor men, one or 

 more of them, quite apart from the fraternity of poachers, 

 who indulge in the luxury of keeping a ferret or two, 

 partly to make money by occasional rat-killing for the 

 farmer, and partly by the young ferrets — a numerous 

 progeny. As these animals do not live on air, but require 

 substantial food for their subsistence — a goodly amount 

 of it, too — their owner is often at a pinch for the providing 

 of it. The sheep's paunch, which costs him twopence, is 

 his best stand-by ; but even this runs up to money, taking 

 into consideration his precarious wage of twelve shillings 

 a week, often reduced by days of rain or sickness. So, to 

 economize the expenditure on paunches, he has recourse 

 to the/eroe naturae, and of these the young of wild birds, 

 callow in their nests, are the easiest of procurement. 

 They are in this state, too, just at the time when the 

 young ferrets are querulously calling for food, and need- 

 ing a large supply of it. 



A tale of poacher cleverness, combined with audacity, 

 has been lately told me, the narrator vouching for its 

 truth. The hero of it, a noted transgressor of the game 

 laws, was out " rabbiting " on a certain moonlight night, 

 having with him a pair of ferrets, a dog, and the usual 

 paraphernalia of nets. The scene of his operations was 

 a warren by the wood's edge on the estate of a neighbour- 

 ing gentleman, and several miles from the poacher's own 

 home. He had just entered the " weasels " when the 

 gentleman's gamekeeper dropped upon him, catching 

 him in flagrante delicto. Still, he found time, before the 

 keeper got forward, to pluck up his nets, clew them into 

 a ball, and fling them into some bushes near by. As a 

 right-of-way path ran past the place, and the man was 

 unknown to the keeper — with no other evidence of his 



