HARES. 95 



method of preparing a hare for table may possibly be found 

 useful. After skinning the animal, immerse it in vinegar and 

 water with a few juniper berries for twelve or even twenty-four 

 hours previous to roasting. By this means it will bo found little, 

 if at all, inferior to a coursed or hunted hare. 



I refer my readers to the Satires of Horace (ii. 4) : 



" Si vespertinus subito te oppresserit hospes, 

 Ne gallina malum responset dura palato, 

 Doctus eris vivam mixto mersare Falerno ; 

 Hoc teneram faciet." 



Hare skins are useful for a variety of purposes. The 

 country people make them into waistcoats — chest preservers ; the 

 fur from the face and ears forms an admirable body, either 

 natural or dyed, for certain trout flies such as the '' Rough Olive 

 Dun," " Blue Dun," " Sedge Flies," etc. 



The hind feet are most useful for oiling guns and such like 

 articles. They were — in former days — much used by those 

 ladies who preferred to supply the complexion which they lacked 

 by a use of the rouge pot ; and the bones of the hind legs, 

 when scraped and polished, are capable of being converted into 

 very handsome cigarette holders. So, all things considered, a 

 hare may be said to be a most useful animal. 



Besides hunting, coursing, or shooting, various illegitimate 

 methods are employed in capturing hares, most commonly that 

 known as " wiring," to my mind detestable in every sense of 

 the word. A person well skilled in setting a hare wire can makel 

 pretty certain of success. It is, however, a practice usually 

 confined to the poaching fraternity, who are far more skilful in 

 the use of a wire than keepers. An experienced eye can very 

 readily detect the difference between a poacher's and a keeper's 

 wire, whether it is set for hares or rabbits. An old hand can 

 utilise a bramble with nearly as certain success as a wire, and 

 with far less fear of detection, always provided that there 

 happens to be a bramble growing near enough to the run of a 

 hare for the purpose. It is somewhat difficult to explain, 

 without the aid of an illustration, the difference between a wire 

 set by a keeper and that set by a poacher ; but, if the two are 

 compared, the difference is very perceptible. Keepers twist their 

 wires far too much as a general rule, and, although they present 

 a very much neater appearance, they are not nearly so 

 destructive; their wires, too, are generally hand-twisted. A 

 skilful poacher never twists his wire by hand, and is careful not 

 to touch the wire more than he can help during its manufacture. 



