130 The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



yards out into the pasture. Only about four 

 inches divides the nets. A dark windy night 

 is best for the work, as in such weather 

 rabbits feed far out in the fields. On a night 

 of this character, too, the game neither hears 

 nor sees the poacher. The nets are long the 

 first small in mesh, that immediately behind 

 large. When a rabbit or hare strikes, the 

 impetus takes a part of the first net and its 

 contents through the larger mesh of the second, 

 and there, hanging, the creature struggles until 

 it is knocked on the head with a stick. Im- 

 mediately the nets are set, two men and a 

 brace of lurchers range the ground in front, 

 slowly and patiently, and gradually drive 

 every feeding thing woodwards. A third man 

 quietly paces the sward behind the nets, killing 

 whatever strikes them. In this way I have 

 taken many scores of rabbits in a single 

 night. On the confines of a large estate a rather 

 clever trick was once played upon us. Each 

 year about half-a-dozen black or white rabbits 

 were turned down into certain woods. Whilst 

 feeding, these stood out conspicuously from the 



