Besides hunting, coursing, or shooting, various illegitimate methods are employed in capturing hares, most commonly that known as “wiring,” to my mind detestable in every sense of the word. A person well skilled in setting a hare wire can make pretty certain of success. It is, however, a practice usually confined to the poaching fraternity, who are far more skilful in the use of a wire than keepers. An experienced eye can very readily detect the difference between a poacher’s and a keeper’s wire, whether it is set for hares or rabbits. An old hand can utilise a bramble with nearly as certain success as a wire, and with far less fear of detection, always provided that there happens to be a bramble growing near enough to the run of a hare for the purpose. It is somewhat difficult to explain, without the aid of an illustration, the difference between a wire set by a keeper and that set by a poacher; but, if the two are compared, the difference is very perceptible. Keepers twist their wires far too much as a general rule, and, although they present a very much neater appearance, they are not nearly so destructive; their wires, too, are generally hand-twisted. A skilful poacher never twists his wire by hand, and is careful not to touch the wire more than he can help during its manufacture, using for the purpose of twisting the strands a weight which is attached to each separate one, and by moving which the necessary degree of twist is imparted, ever taking care to make the twist as slight as possible. A poacher is well aware of the value of an old wire, always provided it is sound and good, preferring it to a new one. The general effect of such a wire when set appears clumsy to an inexperienced eye, but a closer inspection will show the care and skill with which it has been laid. Keepers, as a rule, set wires to catch rabbits or hares for their employers, whereas poachers do so for themselves. On one occasion, when shooting with a friend, we took up some thirty or forty rabbit wires which had been set by a poacher; and the next day my friend found a basket containing upwards of forty more, all of which he gave to an old man in his employ. Curiously enough, we afterwards discovered that these wires had been set by the grandson of the man to whom they were given, who, of course, was not a little pleased to have his property restored to him.
Another method of taking hares, adopted by poachers and the lower class of gipsies, is to place a net across a gateway through which hares are known to pass, and then to send a trained lurcher into the adjoining fields to beat up the hare. Calling hares by means of a hare-call, and then suddenly shooting them or suddenly slipping a lurcher on to them, is a plan occasionally pursued. An ordinary tobacco pipe, provided it has a mouthpiece, makes an excellent call-pipe. The call is produced by pressing the mouthpiece against the lips, which must be nearly closed, sucking in the air, placing the ball of the thumb on the bowl of the pipe, and again quickly removing it. It is easy to produce the required sound with a very little practice.
The following may interest the reader. On the afternoon of Easter Day 1895, I was walking in the water-meadows in front of my house in company with my wife and a friend who had two well-broken retrievers with him. My wife left us, returning to the house by a bridge which used to span the river intervening between my house and the meadows, and which is at that point some forty or fifty yards in width, the current being at the time strong and deep. For some days previously I had noticed a hare in the meadow, and on this occasion she jumped up some two hundred yards from where we were standing in the centre of the field, raced round the meadow, and eventually made straight for the river. The dogs had remained perfectly steady at heel, though fully aware of what was happening. Without the slightest hesitation she plunged boldly out into the stream, swam rapidly across, and scampered up the bank, where, seeing my wife, who had been watching the performance, she turned aside and bolted away through the garden. It was strange that she should have elected to swim so broad a river in preference to making her escape by either of the two sides of the field which lay open to her, more especially since she had not been chased or unduly disturbed in any way. The meadow is a very large one, bounded on one side by the river in question, and on another by a small tributary stream. The animal did not appear particularly frightened either before or after her voyage. Perhaps she was suffering from the insanity to which March hares are proverbially supposed to be addicted. It was, certainly, a somewhat eccentric and unaccountable performance.
In the summer of 1915—when fishing—a hare started up from the opposite side of the river, and swam across not very many yards from where I was, and, in that instance also, it had not been scared or startled in any way, and there was nothing else in the field she started from but an old piebald pony placidly feeding at some distance away. What made it a still more curious performance was that I had a small terrier with me which was nosing about the bank on my side of the river, and the hare passed only a few yards above him.
CHAPTER II.
KENNEL MANAGEMENT.
By H. H. Howard-Vyse.
Kennel management falls under three headings, the arrangement of the kennels themselves, feeding, and exercise. It may be said at once that the management of beagles should be on precisely the same lines as that of any other hounds; and the best way of learning to build up and maintain a good pack of beagles is without doubt to study closely the methods which obtain in any of the first class foxhound kennels. The only differences to bear in mind, apart from the obvious one of size, are that beagles are more delicate and are more apt to be nervous. The latter point needs especially to be remembered in dealing with brood bitches and young entry.
The kennels themselves should be like foxhound kennels in miniature, well ventilated and adequately drained, but warm. The benches should be raised about one foot off the ground, and there should be a raised edge, eight inches higher, to prevent the bedding from slipping off on to the floor. The benches should be hinged and fitted with a short chain which can be hooked on to a staple in the wall. The object of this is to enable the bench to be raised while the kennelman swills or sweeps out underneath it. It need hardly be said that cleanliness is all-important. In order to ensure fresh water the kennel should be fitted with a tap running into a trough about ten inches from the ground. On hunting days an extra liberal amount of clean straw should be provided, to enable hounds to dry themselves quickly. As for foxhounds, an open air yard must be attached to the kennel.