As a general rule, a scout precedes his mates if the poachers happen to be returning home, and this man never carries anything that could endanger his liberty. Should he happen to confront a keeper or a policeman, the scout strikes a match, whistles, or gives some other pre-arranged signal to his mates, who retire and keep out of harm's way. The town poachers endeavour to enter the streets as soon as the night policeman has left his beat.
It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that organised net poaching is mainly responsible for the destruction of hares. The mischief caused by poachers who work alone is quite as serious, and probably more so. For example, a single poacher can, in a very few minutes, fix up half a dozen pocket nets outside the conduits which run through a dyke. He has only to send his dog round the field, or to walk round the enclosure himself, to drive the hares through the conduits. The alarmed animals hasten to escape through their usual means of exit from the field, and of course drop into the purse nets that are suspended outside the 'condies.' A neophyte would fumble too long at setting the nets to be successful in the coup; but not so an old hand. The Midlothian poacher told me that he could fix up his condie nets, drive a field, bag his hares and walk off with his spoil
