132 The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



has the disadvantage of being done in the light, 

 but where there is much game is very deadly. 



Snares for hares and rabbits are not used 

 nearly so much now as formerly. For all that, 

 they are useful in outlying districts, or on land 

 that is not closely watched. For hares the 

 snare is a wire noose tied to a stick with string, 

 and placed edgeways in the trod. To have the 

 snare the right height is an important matter ; 

 and it will be found that two fists high for a 

 hare, and one for a rabbit, is the most deadly. 

 Casuals set their snares in hedge-bottoms, 

 but these are no good. Two or three feet 

 away from the hedge is the most killing position 

 for this reason : when a hare canters up 

 to a fence it never immediately bounds 

 through ; it pauses about a yard away, then 

 leaps into the hedge-bottom. It is during 

 this last leap that it puts its neck into the 

 noose and is taken. If a keeper merely 

 watches a snare until it is " lifted," good and 

 well ; but to put a hare or rabbit into it and 

 then pounce on the moucher well, that is a 

 different matter. It is not difficult to see where 



