168 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



to the acquisition of hares, rabbits, and pheasants. But 

 ■what rather amused me in the keeper's account of his 

 miseries was to find that around the Forest there is not 

 only a fraternity of poachers, but a sisterhood of them — 

 in other words, women engaged in it as well as men. As 

 a rule, the men are employed at other work, in the coal- 

 pits and iron-mines, so having scant time to look after 

 traps. But their wives and daughters do this, some of 

 them, as the keeper says, setting a wire snare, or planting 

 a gin, with as much skill as could the men ; while, not- 

 withstanding their impediment of loose drapery, they are 

 equally quick and clever in getting out of his way, when- 

 ever he makes an attempt to come up with them. 



A KINGFISHER KILLED BY A PERCH. 



On a certain pond, some years ago, occurred another 

 curious episode, not witnessed by any one, but made known 

 by results. A kingfisher was found lying dead by its 

 edge, the cause of death unmistakable : it had caught a 

 perch, and tried to swallow it, but without success ; for 

 the fish was still sticking in its throat, the spines having 

 penetrated the bird's gullet, and so choked it. 



Something more in connection with this unwitnessed 

 spectacle of nature is worth noting. At the time it oc- 

 curred the pond, a very small one, had been but a few 

 days established, and perch put into it. The situation is 

 far away from any other water in which there are fish, on 

 high lying land, and the last place one might expect a 

 kingfisher to be found in. A bird, too, of such rare 



