CATCHING A DUCK
Some years ago I gathered what knowledge I had on poaching and wrote a book about it, discovering, on publication, what a vast field the subject really covers and how extensively its study has been pursued by generation after generation. By the time I had finished with correspondence I could easily have compiled an encyclopedia of poaching and knavery, although my original intention had been to enjoy a literary exercise rather than to educate my peers. The other day I came across an old Cheshire poacher and ne'er-do-well's way of helping himself to his neighbour's ducks and it seemed a thing worthy of note. The ducks in question enjoyed the freedom of a stretch of river, being gathered in at night when they had done up-ending themselves for food. The poacher drove stakes into the bed of the river so that the tops of these were a foot or so beneath the surface. On the ends of the stakes he placed bricks to which he attached baited hooks. The ducks seized the submerged bait, hooking themselves, dis- placing the bricks and sinking to the bottom. After dark the poacher Went out and retrieved his bricks and his drowned ducks!
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