Poachers and Poaching. 



nibble the sweet herbage. They run, making 

 wide leaps at right angles to their path, and 

 sit listening upon their haunches. A freshly- 

 impressed foot-mark, the scent of dog or man 

 at the gate, almost invariably turns them back. 

 Of course these traces are necessarily left if the 

 snare be set on the near side of the gate or 

 fence, and then they refuse to take it even when 

 hard pressed. Where poaching is prevalent and 

 hares abundant, the keepers net every one on 

 the estate, for it is well known to those versed 

 in woodcraft that an escaped hare once netted 

 can never be taken a second time in the same 

 manner. The human scent left at gaps and 

 gateways by ploughmen and shepherds the wary 

 poacher will obliterate by driving sheep over the 

 spot before he begins operations. On the sides 

 of the fells and uplands hares are difficult to 

 kill. This can only be accomplished by swift 

 dogs, which are taken above the game ; puss is 

 made to run down hill, when, from her peculiar 

 formation, she goes at a disadvantage. 



Our poacher is cooly audacious. Here is an 

 actual incident. There was a certain field of 

 young wheat in which were some hares. The 

 knowledge of these came by observation during 

 the day. The field was hard by the Keeper's 

 cottage, and surrounded by a high fence of loose 

 stones. The situation was therefore critical, but 

 that night nets were set at the gates through 



