OF ALEXANDER. 135 



altogether ; they had merely been run down 

 and concealed in the grass,<ready for re-setting 

 at a moment's notice. " Ah ! " said I to my- 

 self, " I think I'll assist at the next setting of 

 this lot." 



This is a common trick with poachers, and 

 often takes in a keeper who is not up to his 

 work. A snaring poacher invariably sets his 

 snares in as secret a way as possible, and al- 

 ways in the best hedgerows for taking ; he finds 

 these out by observation when he is at work in 

 the fields. A hare or rabbit will always take 

 the same run through a hedge, or into a wood; 

 out of innumerable small runs it will invariably 

 choose its own main run. It is a wonderful 

 thing, but each run or road is exclusively the 

 property of the family who first made it. When 

 a hare or rabbit is ' started ' it makes for its own 

 run, and if driven by fear into one that does 

 not belong to it, the effect is at once shown by 

 a marked decrease in speed. A labourer at 

 work in a field observes this, and can swear to 

 the particular point at which a hare or rabbit, 

 started from any given part of the field, will 



