Practical Game-Preserving. 398 



to permit interference with the game, they will soon fall 

 in with it, and mostly work as assiduously for its pro- 

 tection as they would for its destruction if they were 

 treated improperly. As a recompense for this, let them 

 have money or game at the end of the season, and, if they 

 would like a day or two at the rabbits, be it so. No one 

 likes to be suspected, much less to be treated harshly, 

 and if the idea be allowed to engraft itself on the village 

 people that they are thought to poach, or that they dare 

 not for fear of keepers and the law, they are sure to grasp 

 the first and every succeeding opportunity to prove the 

 contrary. In this way poachers are made; they commit 

 the trespass once to revenge themselves or to spite their 

 master or their landlord. The trespass is found to 

 prosper, and the feeling of paying out the preserver is 

 found sweet, and is repeated until the man's character 

 is lost and he becomes a confirmed poacher. So much for 

 the labouring man. 



As to the regular poacher, the ne'er-do-well, the village 

 loafer, he is a common object of the country, generally 

 a labourer, who has always so much work to do that he 

 never does any. He is generally a demure, bland person, 

 obsequious to his betters, and always ready to volunteer 

 information as to his every movement. This is a most 

 annoying kind of poacher, because he is so dark and so 

 modest over his business that one can rarely catch him. 

 A little snaring, a little trapping, and a great deal of 

 egg-stealing, are his chief accomplishments, and very 

 often his wife and children have to play a part as well 

 in the latter business, particularly in carrying away the 

 eggs when they bring his dinner. At night he will often 

 be busy, particularly with a stick, amongst the pheasants 

 in windy weather, when there is a good moon, or he will 

 not hesitate to use an air-gun, or even an approved firearm. 



