TRESPASSERS AND POACHERS 243 



hare crouching against the butt of a tree. The 

 hare already was dead and stiff. That groom was 

 converted by getting everyone to ask him if 

 he had heard of the man who tried to kill a 

 dead hare. 



I lay hidden one early morning, watching a wire 

 which I had knocked down purposely. At last I 

 heard the thud of feet and the friction of corduroy 

 trousers. A man said to his companion, as they 

 passed the snare, and within arm's length of me, 

 1 Knock' d down, ain't it ?' The next time the 

 speaker was met in the ordinary way he was 

 greeted with, ' Knock'd down, ain't it?' instead of 

 the time of day. There are a good many people 

 who prefer to profit by the snares set by others 

 rather than run the extra risk of setting them them- 

 selves. And, conversely, a man who is caught in 

 the act of removing the catch from a snare often 

 will plead that he did not set it. An old man who 

 had leave to wire rabbits on my ground complained 

 that someone was sneaking some of those he caught. 

 I discovered the culprit ; and on my asking him 

 why he had taken a rabbit well knowing he was 

 robbing an old man of his scanty living what do 

 you think he had the impudence to tell me ? That 

 it was his intention to take it to the old man, who 

 lived a good three miles away. 



A man told me how he and his family kept them- 

 selves in cheap rabbits for months. A farmer 



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