Practical Game-Preserving. 400 



So far I have referred to the poachers which infest 

 semi-preserved districts. They flourish only in parts 

 where on one estate game is strictly looked after, whilst 

 on the next it is anybody's property, i.e., if there be 

 any. The worst type of poacher, however, hails from 

 the large towns, and he is generally a scoundrel in every 

 sense of the word. Such men poach as a means of enrich- 

 ing themselves, and in their endeavours so to do they will 

 stop at nothing. They generally work in gangs of from 

 three to thirty, and when sufficiently numerous will take 

 the coverts by storm, and set keepers, watchers, and owners 

 at defiance. When in small gangs they will often offer 

 resistance of the most stubborn kind, and many a scene of 

 bloodshed has been enacted in collisions with desperate 

 ruffians of this kind. The town poachers' favourite work 

 is done at night, and they endeavour to keep within the 

 number of five, and so avoid the severer penalties which 

 the fact of being in larger parties renders them liable to. 

 They have, moreover, favourite modes of working, employ 

 a horse and trap, and skirmish about from place to place, 

 taking a shot here and another there, being off again 

 before the keepers can get near them. They are also the 

 purveyors who supply partridges early enough to be in 

 London on the First of September, who send grouse 

 packed in coffins, and who are up to every move whereby 

 their nefarious calling may be made remunerative. The 

 town poacher, furthermore, is frequently a dealer in 

 poached game, taking it from the local rural ones and 

 disposing of it at a lucrative price. There are regular 

 receivers of poached game in nearly every country town 

 of any importance. 



Besides these there are the men who poach not so much 

 for the purpose of making money as from pure love of 

 sport. These persons chiefly infest grouse-moors, and are 



