ON THE THEFT OF LIVE GAME. llo 



rabbits, can bo caught as easily as some people 

 siij)pose. A hare or a rabbit won't go through a 

 snare in the hedge, or take the run in the grass 

 Avhere even a wire is set up- wind of them, that 

 is if the hare or rabbit approach with the wind 

 coming from the snare to them. If they come the 

 other way, or down-wind to the snai-e, then they 

 are very likely taken in it, for their nose is the 

 only thing besides the ear which warns them of 

 danger ; their eyes, in this respect, if the danger 

 is stationary, are of no use to them whatever. 



• The worst season for poaching or thieving 

 game is precisely that when people who know 

 nothing about it suppose that depredations against 

 the game are all over — I, mean the entire months 

 of February and March. It is then that the 

 large game-dealers in London, and all over the 

 country, have a demand for live pheasants. Pro- 

 prietors Avho have over-shot their manors, and 

 renters of manors newly taking possession of 

 them, and finding nothing there but air and 

 exercise, all alike ap^ily to ^Hhe trade,'' and 

 then, in league, many of them, with the local 

 thieves, they send down a man, with a roomy box 



or well, attached to a sort of mercantile phaeton, 



I 2 



