HARES 327 



cannot get the scent of the guns, a hare would run between a 

 shooter's legs without seeing him if he stood absolutely still 

 and bestrode the hare track. But it is the " absolute " that 

 makes all the difference. Some people say that a hare cannot 

 see straight in front of it, but this is a mistake ; it can detect the 

 smallest movement although directly in front, and if it will 

 almost run against you, it will not allow you to walk from the 

 direct front up to it as it lies in its form. 



When hares are wild, they sit high in their forms, and can be 

 seen from a long distance. However, when they mean to lie 

 close, they are remarkably difficult to see even upon open 

 ground, except to those who know what to look for, and the 

 most experienced will often pass them. Private coursers, 

 especially when mounted, get extremely clever at rinding 

 hares in their seats. In beating for them, when they are not 

 wild, the drivers who take a straight course will miss three- 

 parts of the hares, but if they zigzag, making half-turns 

 suddenly, every hare will believe itself seen and will run. 



In beating flat country for hares, very much the same order 

 as in partridge driving in the open, and as in pheasant beating 

 in covert, has to be adopted. Stops and flanks are a necessity, 

 but in driving moorlands a very different system is adopted. 

 The hares there will all make up hill, no matter which way the 

 beaters walk, so that a continuous circuit round the hills, 

 beginning at the lowest level and cork-screwing upwards, is 

 the plan if there are not enough beaters to cover the slope at 

 one operation. If there are, the beating is done as if it were the 

 desire to drive the hares along the slope or face of the hill, 

 but as they will all pass along the front face of the drivers 

 and mount the hill either near or far on, the guns will take 

 up hidden positions upon the tops. Any other system of 

 driving blue hares has been found from experience to be 

 more or less misdirected energy. These animals are not very 

 much liked in the deer forests, because the deer understand the 

 hares' movements as well as if they talked to each other, and 

 a startled hare usually means also a startled stag in the stalking 

 season. But in grouse ground the hares should not be kept 



