FRUSTRATING THE POACHERS. 175 



I knew a cunning old gamekeeper in Yorkshire 

 who used to frustrate the efforts of people who 

 practised this kind of poaching by what he called 

 " mistetching " the Hares on his beat every autumn. 

 He netted as many of them as he could himself, 

 and then turned them loose again. The conse- 



THE HARE CAUGHT. 



quence was that a Hare- that had once struggled 

 within the meshes of a net would rarely go through 

 a gateway or sheep-creep (a hole in a stone wall 

 to let sheep through from one field to another) 

 unless absolutely forced to do so by an exceedingly 

 swift dog. I have seen a Hare which this man had 

 had in a net leap a stone fence quite six feet high. 

 She bounded on to it sideways, and then leapt 

 quietly down on the other side. 



These animals have a peculiar habit which they 



