. The Hare : Natural history . larger. Itis not sufficiently abundant on any shootings knownto the writer to afford days such as have just beendescribed ; but when found on the lower hills whichare encircled by enclosed country, with just a crownof rideable heather on the top, it affords excellentsport to a pack of harriers, and will often run straightfrom the top of one hill, across the intervening en-closed valley, to the top of the nearest hill or rangeof hills, and capital gallops are often the result of thispeculiarity. Since first game laws were passed and preservationof any sort became
. The Hare : Natural history . larger. Itis not sufficiently abundant on any shootings knownto the writer to afford days such as have just beendescribed ; but when found on the lower hills whichare encircled by enclosed country, with just a crownof rideable heather on the top, it affords excellentsport to a pack of harriers, and will often run straightfrom the top of one hill, across the intervening en-closed valley, to the top of the nearest hill or rangeof hills, and capital gallops are often the result of thispeculiarity. Since first game laws were passed and preservationof any sort became prevalent, the hare has been thechief object of the poachers attacks. Easy ofcapture, valuable to sell, and easy to find in thedays before the Ground Game Act of 1880 made itwell-nigh as extinct as the dodo in half the countiesof England, the poacher has always marked the harefor his own. Many are his contrivances, the first andsimplest being the ordinary wire snare, set in thesmeuses of the fence. Simple as this device is, it. THE BLUE HARE-POACHING—HAWKING loi is not every man that can set it so as to catch hares,and it is by no means desirable to give to those whocannot printed instructions which may assist themto obtain the necessary knowledge. The carefulkeeper will, of course, watch every smeuse in everyfence for snares—that is to say, where the land isoccupied by his employer. Where the farm is let,there is nothing to prevent the farmer from lining hisfences with wire nooses. But if there be suspicionsof foul play, the only chance is for the keeper and hisassistants to watch the snares by relays, till they seewho comes to take them up; or to take away a harecaught in them. The watch must be unremitting,and the plan has often resulted in the capture of apoacher of the less wary type ; but older hands arepretty sure to detect something wrong, and to givetheir snare a wide berth for ever and aye, after theyrealise that its presence is known to others besidesthemselves.
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