CH. XXXVI. SALE OF GAME. 261 



ledge of their habits, manner of calling to each 

 other, etc., that I by no means deem it impossible. 

 Hares, like deer, travel considerable distances 

 to obtain their favourite food, and are therefore 

 easily killed by the nightly poacher, either by being 

 snared or shot en route. Practice and natural 

 keenness enable some of these fellows to get the 

 animal to the summit of some rising ground, so that 

 the clear sky shall be behind it, and they can thus 

 shoot a hare on nights when there is no moonlight, 

 and when an unpractised pair of eyes would be 

 scarcely able to distinguish a house from a tree. 



Pheasants are killed by snare and gun as easily 

 as barn-door fowls would be : so that the unprin- 

 cipled dealer in game has not the slightest difficulty 

 in keeping his shop full enough to supply the 

 demands of all customers at all seasons. 



I can imagine no better system for sportsmen to 

 adopt than that of underselling the poacher as much 

 as they possibly can. In Scotland, in particular, 

 where the right to shoot game is bought, and very 

 often at a high rate, I can see no reason whatever 

 why the purchaser should not sell again what he 

 has paid for. In recommending this to the renter 

 of shooting-grounds, I only advocate his selling in a 

 fair and liberal manner his overplus of game; not, 

 of course, his hiring ground for the mere sake of 



