Page:The Hare.djvu/131

Rh ready. A hare that has once been thus netted in a gateway, and handled, will require an extraordinarily good dog to force her through one again. This plan can be adopted where it is known that many good lurchers exist. It will save scores of hares. It is also a useful plan to paint white the three bottom bars of all gates. But careful watching and general supervision of the ground will do more to prevent poaching than any especially crafty devices, and where a manor has a reputation for being well looked after it will only rarely be troubled by poachers of this class.

Another, and possibly little known, method of taking hares is by hawking. It is, however, rather to be regarded as a tour de force in sporting matters than as a means whereby they can be 'readily reduced into possession,' as the lawyers phrase it. The feat has been performed in modern times in two different ways: first, by means of the long-winged gerfalcon; secondly, of the short-winged goshawk. For the former method a very open country is needed; the flight is often of long duration, for the falcon, soaring above the fleeting hare, will endeavour to stun and confuse her by repeated blows, ere she will 'bind to' or finally seize her quarry. In this kind of flight the hare has every chance to make good her escape to some friendly