SOME RECORDS AND COMPARISONS = 223 
across the field, frequently put up a quantity of birds 
as she runs through them. When driving, they only 
distract attention from the birds, cause shouting, 
chasing, and other evils, and when the shooters are 
expected to kill them as a matter of duty, you will 
often find your best men, having fired off all their: 
barrels at hares, with empty guns at the moment 
when a covey comes over them. 
Out of consideration for the farming interest, 
hares should be killed off as much as possible in the 
fields by the middle of October, as up to then they 
do very little harm. But after the sharp frosts set in 
they punish the root crops severely, their habit of nib- 
bling ten turnips for every one they fairly eat causing 
each root so attacked to be destroyed by the frost. 
The best way to kill them, as well as the most 
amusing, is to half-moon a large stretch of country 
towards a gorse-cover, osier-bed, or some small out- 
lying covert which they take to readily, and then, 
having set nets round three sides of it, and placed 
some of your guns forward, to beat the covert. As 
the half-moon closes in, they will turn back and 
charge the line at full speed, and if you wish to save 
your partridges for a drive later on, you can spare 
them on these days, while you will get a great déal of 
sport and do a great deal of good by devoting your- 
self exclusively to the hares in this manner. 
