THE CLOSE SEASON AND POACHING.
The greatest division of the year is February 2nd, if we may take that as the most typical date for the beginning of the " wappen-still-stand " or close season, when it is against the law to kill game. One would like to see in some respects a stronger enforcement of it. The increasing army of poachers— especially perhaps in the West—pay little attention to the date. A man found last year shooting pheasants on the nest—
the place was on the WeLsh border—excused himself by saying "But, look you, they are then easiest to kill I" The prime evil of poaching is its cruelty. Fish-hooks baited with raisins were recently found in one of the home counties. It would be to the good if the penalties for poaching, whatever they arc, were very greatly increased if the game were killed in the close season, or by acts of any such cruelty as the fish-hook or steel trap inflicts.
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