SOME RECORDS AND COMPARISONS 223 



across the field, frequently put up a quantity of birds 

 as she runs through them. When driving, they only 

 distract attention from the birds, cause shouting, 

 chasing, and other evils, and when the shooters are 

 expected to kill them as a matter of duty, you will 

 often find your best men, having fired off all their 

 barrels at hares, with empty guns at the moment 

 when a covey comes over them. 



Out of consideration for the farming interest, 

 hares should be killed off as much as possible in the 

 fields by the middle of October, as up to then they 

 do very little harm. But after the sharp frosts set in 

 they punish the root crops severely, their habit of nib- 

 bling ten turnips for every one they fairly eat causing 

 each root so attacked to be destroyed by the frost. 



The best way to kill them, as well as the most 

 amusing, is to half-moon a large stretch of country 

 towards a gorse-cover, osier-bed, or some small out- 

 lying covert which they take to readily, and then, 

 having set nets round three sides of it, and placed 

 some of your guns forward, to beat the covert. As 

 the half-moon closes in, they will turn back and 

 charge the line at full speed, and if you wish to save 

 your partridges for a drive later on, you can spare 

 them on these days, while you will get a great deal of 

 sport and do a great deal of good by devoting your- 

 self exclusively to the hares in this manner. 



