SLEIGHT-OF-HAND POACHING. 



159 



POACHING IN THE WINTER. 



the only place where the sudden grasp would hold him in 

 his convulsive terror he is surprisingly powerful and 

 almost ere he can shriek (as he will do) the left hand has 

 tightened round the hind legs. Stretching him to his full 

 length across the knee, the right thumb, with a peculiar 

 twist, dislocates his neck, and he is dead in an instant. 

 There is something of the hangman's knack in this, which 

 is the invariable way of killing rabbits when ferreted or 

 caught alive ; and yet it is the most merciful, for death 



