sturbed, it
is doubtful if so small a staff of keepers could have done anything to
stop them. As it was, they not only made a good haul--the largest made
for years in that locality--but quite spoiled the shooting.

There are no white figures passing through the peaceful wood to-night
and firing up into the trees. It is perfectly still. The broad moon
moves slow, and the bright rays light up tree and bush, so that it is
easy to see through, except where the brambles retain their leaves and
are fringed with the dead ferns.

The poaching of the present day is carried on with a few appliances
only. An old-fashioned poacher could employ a variety of 'engines,' but
the modern has scarcely any choice. There was, for instance, a very
effective mode of setting a wire with a springe or bow. A stout stick
was thrust into the ground, and then bent over into an arch. When the
wire was thrown it instantly released the springe, which sprang up and
drew it fast round the neck of the hare or rabbit, whose fore feet were
lifted from the earth. Sometimes a growing sapling was bent down for the
bow if it chanced to stand conveniently near a run. The hare no sooner
put her head into the noose than she was suspended and strangled.

I tried the springe several times for rabbits, and found it answer; but
the poacher cannot use it because it is so conspicuous. The stick
itself, rising above the grass, is visible at some distance, and when
thrown it holds the hare or rabbit up for any one to see that passes by.
With a wire set in the present manner the captured animal lies extended,
and often rolls into a furrow and is further hidden.

The springe was probably last employed by the mole-catchers. Their
wooden traps were in the shape of a small tunnel, with a wire in the
middle which, when the mole passed through, set free a bent stick. This
stick pulled the wire and hung the mole. Such mole-catchers' bows or
springes used to be seen in every meadow, but are now superseded by the
iron trap.

Springes with horsehair nooses on the ground were also set for woodcocks
and for wild ducks. It is said that a springe of somewhat similar
construction was used for pheasants. Horsehair nooses are still applied
for capturing woodpeckers and the owls that spend the day in hollow
trees, being set round the hole by which they leave the tree. A more
delicate horsehair noose is sometimes set for finches and small birds. I
tried it for bullfinches, but did not