. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . he softearth—any slight hole, in fact ; and it is so concealed,or rather differs so little from the appearance of thegeneral sward around, as to be easily passed un-noticed. You may actually step on it, and so smashthe eggs, before you see it. Aware that the most careful observation may failto find what he wants, the egg-stealer adopts a simplebut efTective plan by which he ensures against omit-ing to examine a single foot of the field. Drop apocket-knife or some such object in the midst of agreat meadow, and you will find
. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . he softearth—any slight hole, in fact ; and it is so concealed,or rather differs so little from the appearance of thegeneral sward around, as to be easily passed un-noticed. You may actually step on it, and so smashthe eggs, before you see it. Aware that the most careful observation may failto find what he wants, the egg-stealer adopts a simplebut efTective plan by which he ensures against omit-ing to examine a single foot of the field. Drop apocket-knife or some such object in the midst of agreat meadow, and you will find the utmost difficultyin discovering it again, when the grass is growing tallas in spring. You may think that you have traversedevery inch, yet it is certain that you have not ; the Egg-stealers Trick 167 inequalities of the ground insensibly divert your foot-steps, and it is very difficult to keep a straight is required is something to fix the eye—what asailor would call a bearing. This the egg-stealerfinds in a walking-stick. He thrusts the point into. PLOVER S NEST the earth, and then slowly walks round and round it,enlarging the circle every time, and thus sweeps everyinch of the surface with his eye. When he has got sofar from the stick as to feel that his steps are becominguncertain, he removes it, and begins again in another 168 The Gamekeeper at Ho77ie spot. A person not aware of this simple trick willsearch a field till weary and declare there is nothingto be found ; another, who knows the dodge, will goout and return in an hour with a pocketful of eggs. On those clear, bright winter nights when thefull moon is almost at the zenith, and the definition of tree and bough in the flood of light seems to equalif not to exceed that of the noonday, some poachingused to be accomplished with the aid of a horsehairnoose on the end of a long slender wand. There arestill some districts in the country more or less coveredwith forest, and which on account of ancient ri
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, booksubjectcountrylife, booksubjecthunting
