lOO SHOOTING THE HARE 



almond obtained 1,289 blue hares in one day. Such 

 figures as these show the absolute necessity of sys- 

 tematically killing down animals that increase and 

 multiply so abundantly. 



The Irish hare is a variety of the Scotch blue, and 

 closely resembles it, except that it is a size larger. It 

 is not sufficiently abundant on any shootings known 

 to the writer to afford days such as have just been 

 described ; but when found on the lower hills which 

 are encircled by enclosed country, with just a crown 

 of rideable heather on the top, it affords excellent 

 sport to a pack of harriers, and will often run straight 

 from the top of one hill, across the intervening en- 

 closed valley, to the top of the nearest hill or range 

 of hills, and capital gallops are often the result of this 

 peculiarity. 



Since first game laws were passed and preservation 

 of any sort became prevalent, the hare has been the 

 chief object of the poacher's attacks. Easy of 

 capture, valuable to sell, and easy to find in the 

 days before the Ground Game Act of 1880 made it 

 well-nigh as extinct as the dodo in half the counties 

 of England, the poacher has always marked the hare 

 for his own. Many are his contrivances, the first and 

 simplest being the ordinary wire snare, set in the 

 ' smeuses ' of the fence. Simple as this device is, it 



