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THE BLUE HARE—POACHING—HAWKING
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and hopping along the hillside, now sitting up to reconnoitre, now scudding in terror as if the beaters were at their very heels. Lower down, scattered single shots tell us that the extreme left is engaged, and in a few minutes a brisk fusillade has begun. Near to the rock behind which we sit are two of the little paths we have described, one above and one below, and it is curious to note how every hare follows one line or the other without divergence. The range is soon established, and as each hare emerges from the shelter of a big rock on the one path, and crosses a flat patch of grass on the other, he has to be rolled over cleanly and well. As sport, or as a test of good shooting, it must be owned that this form of hare-killing has but little to recommend it. Were it not for the necessity of killing down these prolific little creatures, and for the great charm and beauty of the surroundings, few sportsmen would care to take part in such drives; but on shootings where hares are numerous they are a necessity. On some hills and in some years the number that may be killed seems to depend simply upon the time and trouble that are taken about the matter. Many big bags have been made, especially in Perthshire, but the largest of which I have a record was made in November 1889, when six guns shooting at Logie-