Practical Game-Preserving. 404 



or killing it, but a gamekeeper possesses no right of search 

 whatever, and anybody, poacher or otherwise, is quite 

 justified in resisting it. Nor is he entitled to seize 

 either guns, game, dogs, nets, or traps, except under 

 well-defined conditions to which I shall refer pre- 

 sently. 



Further, a gamekeeper who in virtue of his licence 

 challenges anyone carrying a gun or employing a dog, and 

 ascertains that he has no licence, can only inform the 

 police or an Excise officer, or in case of suspecting any- 

 body he can lay an information in these quarters whether 

 he hold a licence or not, but he can make no demand 

 upon the person suspected. 



As regards simple trespass a keeper's rights are clear, 

 but less than is generally thought to be the case. He 

 must ask trespassers upon his master's land to leave 

 by the way they came ; if they refuse he may obstruct 

 their advance in any other direction. He must not 

 employ force himself, but must summon aid to assist him 

 quietly. If the trespassers prove obdurate, and such 

 aid be not forthcoming, the keeper can only warn them 

 and endeavour to make better arrangements upon any 

 future occasion. The same applies to persons upon the 

 highway who seek to obstruct shooting. They may be 

 removed if assistance be obtained and no more force than 

 necessary is employed. 



Other matters of simple trespass may only be dealt with 

 as follows : If the owner, &c., of an adjoining preserve 

 shoots into land under the keeper's charge, the latter can 

 only warn him and inform his master ; if the former's 

 dog makes a practice of trespassing he can only inform 

 the dog's owner or his keeper and warn him that traps 

 will be put down. A gamekeeper or his dog is not 

 entitled to enter adjoining land to pick up dead or 



