62 PRESERVATION OP GAME. 



destruction of hares, have, with the largest parties of 

 poachers, given way to the simple provision of one or 

 at most two purse-nets, of very fine materials. The 

 chief trouble is in stopping and reducing the creeps, 

 which in the more advanced parts of the seasons, is 

 much abbreviated by the expedient of a large slice of 

 turnip dropped near each, equally efficacious also on 

 the principle of a scarecrow. 



Pheasants are also taken in creeps, near their feeding 

 places by a single wire, and on the same principle as 

 hares, before described. 



Partridges, after their roosting places have been ascer- 

 tained, are captured simply by means of a horse-hair 

 noose, fixed to a small stake in the ground. Several of 

 these are laid in the traverses, about a yard asunder ; on 

 being entangled, the birds strive incessantly to come at 

 each other, thus keeping the noose to its utmost stretch, 

 till they become quite exhausted and incapable of fur- 

 ther struggling. 



Deer are taken by putting a wisp of hay at the 

 root of a tree, between two stubs ; and fixing a hoisting 

 halter before it. When he pulls the hay it will take 

 him. Or hang two apples upon the body of a tree, 

 high enough to make him reach up ; and a sharp hook 

 being driven in just under them, it will catch him under 

 the jaws on his slipping down. The poacher then lies 

 in ambush, from whence he runs and cuts the deer's 

 throat. They take fawns, by paring their feet when 

 first dropt ; this will keep them at lodge, where they 



