30 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



were given, who, of course, was not a little pleased 

 to have his property restored to him. 



Another method of taking hares adopted by 

 poachers and the lower class of gipsies, is to place 

 a net across a gateway through which hares are 

 known to pass, and then to send a trained lurcher 

 into the adjoining fields to beat up the hares. 

 Calling hares by means of a hare-call, and then 

 shooting them or suddenly slipping a lurcher 

 on them, are plans occasionally pursued. An 

 ordinary tobacco-pipe, provided it has a mouth- 

 piece, makes an excellent call-pipe. The call 

 is produced by pressing the mouthpiece against 

 the lips, which must be nearly closed, sucking 

 in the air, placing the ball of the thumb on the 

 bowl of the pipe, and again quickly removing it. 

 It is easy to produce the required sound with a 

 very little practice. 



Since writing the foregoing, I witnessed the 

 following, which I think may perhaps interest the 

 reader : On the afternoon of Easter Day, 1895, 

 I was walking in the water-meadows in front of 

 my house in company with my wife and a friend 

 who had two well-broken retrievers with him. 

 My wife left us, returning home by a bridge 

 which spans the river intervening between my 

 house and the meadows, and which is at that 

 point some forty or fifty yards in width, the current 

 being strong and deep. For some days previously 

 I had noticed a hare in the meadow, and on this 

 occasion she jumped up some two hundred yards 



