I02 SHOOTING THE HARE 



with the offence most unjustly. But even if the real 

 poacher be detected and brought before the local 

 bench, the trick is now so well known that a direct 

 question put to the keeper, either by the defendant or 

 by some magistrate on the bench, will elicit the truth 

 or a suspicion of it, when a dismissal of the case will 

 almost surely follow, and a crafty poacher add 

 another escape to his long list of ' narrow shaves ' and 

 another wrinkle for future defence to an experience 

 already sufficiently comprehensive ; while the keeper, 

 who has spent much time and trouble over the case, 

 earns nothing by his superabundant zeal except rebuke 

 and disappointment. 



From the sportsman's point of view, the best and 

 most appreciable form of poaching is that done by the 

 aid of trained lurchers ; for some of these dogs, how^- 

 ever reprehensible may be the use made of them, are 

 among the best sporting animals ever trained. Wiry 

 and hard, \vith speed enough to turn a good hare or 

 to catch a weak one, with excellent noses, and with 

 intelligence to make the best use of both qualities, a 

 first-class lurcher can be converted into a ' game 

 destroyer ' of pow^erful calibre. Such dogs were 

 not uncommon in Norfolk some twenty-five years ago, 

 and the best of them commanded high prices, save 

 wlicn its owner had got ' into trouble,' and the poor 



