6 DECEMBER 1957, Page 40

CARRYING A HARE

Passing a man on the road the other day I noticed that he had a hare which he had either, snared or picked up on the road, victim of an accident. The dead hare was being held by the heels and its ears were trailing, for he wasn't a very tall man. I had an impulse to stop and tell him that he wasn't carrying his hare in the proper way, at least if he wanted to make soup. I was taught to carry a hare by its ears. Almost invariably when a hare is shot or comes to a violent end the blood, which makes soup, collects in the abdomen if the hare is carried by the ears. If it is carried by the hind legs the blood is almost certain to fill the cavity behind the ribs and will be lost unless care is taken when it is being paunched. I have never made hare soup, and have no great taste for the flesh of hares unless they are roasted and well basted, but this is what I was told, and the lesson came early. I carried hares for all sorts of people when a small boy

and my length was not much greater than that Of 3 full-grown bog hare, which was always thought 10 t4 the largest breed.