Page:The Hare.djvu/112

90 is concerned, and in the period we speak of hares swarmed all over the county, and heavy bags were made on most of the great manors. At Gunton, on December 3, 1875, 614 were killed by eight guns; and in former years hares were very abundant on this manor, where game-preserving has always been most admirably understood and carried to great perfection. It used to be the practice here to kill down the superabundant jack hares rigidly, and a shilling per head was given to the keepers for all that they could bring in during the months of February and March. In some years as many as four hundred have been thus accounted for, which will give some idea of the abundance that was to be found on this manor. A notable day's shooting took place on November 17, 1881, when in Antingham Wood, a spinney of thirteen acres, the following bag was killed by seven guns, viz.:

Very rarely has such a bag been realised in so small an acreage of covert; and as regards the hares killed, the numbers will perhaps never be obtained in this country again on a similar extent of land.