COM]\rON PATITRTDGE. 
3 
lionest stout stake driven or sunk with a jumper very firmly into the ground, and sticking up a couple 
of feet; when the net came on this we had to stop dead or to tear — there were no two ways about it. 
IVfany men and keepers have a notion that very little will stop a net or render it useless ; anything 
catching a net high up uill probably be mischievous, but anything catching the tail does no great harm, 
except it is firm or likely to make a somersault. "We dragged a lot of thistles in the tail of the net, 
stretched the net, pegged it out and took them out easily. A thorn bush catching high up and going 
away uith the net is nasty; a thorn in the tail of the net is not much, it won’t stop it or wisp it up. 
Birds don’t lie very close to the fence, but generally about the centre of the field, all the field won’t 
require pegs. A good peg for every acre will protect any field— for twenty acres say twenty pegs. The 
net takes in about half an acre (70 yards square is about an acre) ; the net won’t go twice its own 
length before being pulled up ; the finer and longer the nets the fewer pegs required. Poachers sometimes 
run a large square net with laths or bamboos along the sides to stretch it ; it requires four men, one at 
each corner; it is carried clear of the ground, and there are droppers from it to start the birds— when 
they hear them, they drop the whole concern. It is a troublesome net to rig up in the dark and to 
conceal, and is not often used except the country is all bushed. There is always a bit of a sag in the 
middle, and longer stakes like sheep flakes will reach it and stop it. Poachers take good stock of the 
ground before they run a net ; if there are some old harrow's wdth the teeth uppermost lying about 
the fields, and if they are occasionally shifted, a poacher w'on’t care about the chance of being maimed. 
A tumble over a harrow in the dark is no joke. Of course, hai-row^s can’t be left in a hunting country ; 
but in a non-hunting country an honest man has no more chance of being off the road in a dark night 
than he has of being on the spikes of your area railings. Poachers don’t like a rainy night, or even if 
the grass is very w'ct, it spoils and clogs the net ; nor a very windy night, the net beats them. A dark 
dry night, with a slight breeze, just enough to carry the net when going against it, suits them best.— J. D. B.” 
Some years back, after a conversation with a friend whose land w'as oceasionally visited by one or 
two parties of lawless individuals in possession of drag-nets, I drew a plan for an artificial metal thistle, 
which^ was most skilfully turned out according to my orders by an ironmonger in the Strand. These 
imitations could be placed either in a socket, in a stump of w'ood driven into the ground, or merely fixed 
by being pressed down sufficiently deep into the soil. Shortly after, it was stated that my invention 
had the desired effect, though strong stumps armed with crooked naill or hooks were more easily procured 
and repliced if removed. A year or two later I learned that the ground, as far as could be ascertained, 
was left entirely unmolested, and this style of poaching was no longer carried on in the district. The 
sharp points of one of the thistles was said to have inflicted some ugly wounds on a w'ell-known offender, 
and this probably intimidated the rest of the gang. When carefully turned out and coloured these 
thistles were very difficult to detect in a field at any distance, and no amount of wmtehing from the road- 
side by those intending a raid would reveal the whereahouts of the whole that were planted out. Of 
course such means of putting a stop to poaching can only be efficiently carried out where a staff of 
well-trained keepers and watchers are employed and all loafers kept constantly in view while in the 
neighbourhood. The first pattern sent for my approval, which I show'cd to an old hand whose delight 
it had been “on a shiny night,” &c., greatly astonished this wary individual, and after closely examining 
its construction, and expressing an opinion that it must inevitably cut its way through any net, he 
concluded by remarking, “And how about one’s blessed shins if he came across a thing like this in the 
dark ! ” 
Pheasants’ eggs always fetch a good price in the market ; but there is not the same demand for those 
of the Partridge, and consequently this species does not suffer to such an extent from the depredations 
