THE HARE AND HER TROD 71 



depends largely upon the rapidity of their movements 

 and upon good generalship. 



Poachers never do their work in easy confidence. 

 The possibility of a surprise is always present to their 

 minds. Even if the drive is a complete success, the 

 return home bristles with dangers. The dodges by 

 which they seek to circumvent their enemies are 

 multifold. In some instances professional poachers 

 hire themselves out as farm hinds, and this applies 

 especially to districts in which the labourers live in 

 bothies attached to the farmhouses. In an instance 

 which came under my notice recently, two Glasgow 

 poachers hired themselves out as ploughmen on a 

 lowland farm. The farmer thought that he was fortu- 

 nate in his servants, for they worked industriously all 

 the day. He little imagined that they spent the small 

 hours in ranging the fields with long nets in search of 

 ground game. As a matter of fact, they killed great 

 quantities of hares, which were duly smuggled to the 

 nearest gamedealers' shops, both in baskets and in 

 brown paper parcels. Nor did they desist until the 

 keepers began to suspect where the blame lay for the 

 disappearance of their hares. When the poachers 

 at length found themselves in danger they quietly 

 decamped, feeling no doubt well pleased with their 

 rural earnings. 



