Page:The Hare.djvu/124

100 obtained 1,289 blue hares in one day. Such figures as these show the absolute necessity of systematically killing down animals that increase and multiply so abundantly.

The Irish hare is a variety of the Scotch blue, and closely resembles it, except that it is a size larger. It is not sufficiently abundant on any shootings known to the writer to afford days such as have just been described; but when found on the lower hills which are encircled by enclosed country, with just a crown of rideable heather on the top, it affords excellent sport to a pack of harriers, and will often run straight from the top of one hill, across the intervening enclosed valley, to the top of the nearest hill or range of hills, and capital gallops are often the result of this peculiarity.

Since first game laws were passed and preservation of any sort became prevalent, the hare has been the chief object of the poacher's attacks. Easy of capture, valuable to sell, and easy to find in the days before the Ground Game Act of 1880 made it well-nigh as extinct as the dodo in half the counties of England, the poacher has always marked the hare for his own. Many are his contrivances, the first and simplest being the ordinary wire snare, set in the 'smeuses' of the fence. Simple as this device is, it