68 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE\ HARE 



depend upon any animal always remaining mute. 

 Even a well-trained lurcher will occasionally forget 

 itself and give tongue, especially if it fears that a hare 

 is about to escape. It is here, in particular, that the 

 superiority of the Bedlington breed lies. Even a 

 Bedlington terrier is liable to make a mistake. I am 

 sorry to find that the Midlothian poachers indulge in 

 the most reprehensible practice of making their dogs 

 mute by mechanical means. An instrument called a 

 shoemaker's ' punch ' is used to perforate the tongue 

 of the dog, which it does with a single click. The 

 poor animal is supposed to become mute in conse- 

 quence of this inhuman treatment. 



Dogs are now^ more often dispensed with by 

 poachers than formerly. Here I may remark that 

 the human voice is sometimes used to decoy the hare 

 within range. The poacher arms himself with a gun, 

 and takes his stand in a thick hedge, well concealed. 

 He then reproduces the piteous cries of a leveret in 

 distress. If the imitation be accurate, it often induces 

 an old hare to approach the poacher within shot ; for 

 the hare is sympathetic towards its own kind. This 

 method of poaching is rarely practised nowadays ; but 

 the skill with which an old hand imitates the cries of 

 the suffering leveret is perfectly astonishing. 



Ever since the days of Xenophon, nets have 



