NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT ii 



first of February, has always seemed to us a repre- 

 hensible one. As above stated, rabbits begin to 

 breed in February, and while there can be no satis- 

 faction in shooting does that are scarcely able to run, 

 a great deal of cruelty is thoughtlessly perpetrated by 

 killing rabbits whose young ones are consequently 

 left to die of starvation in the burrow. Keepers, by 

 way of excuse, will assert that they have not had time 

 to kill the rabbits by the end of the shooting season. 

 But this is nonsense. There is plenty of time if they 

 choose to do it, and without disturbing the coverts 

 too, for they can ferret and catch them in nets, a 

 proceeding which, if quietly and properly carried 

 out, will not unduly disturb the pheasants. In our 

 opinion, rabbits should not be maintained in such 

 numbers that they cannot be killed down, so far as 

 is necessary, between September i and February i. 

 Humanitarians, no doubt, would advocate a close 

 time for rabbits in the spring ; but, in view of the 

 extraordinary rate at which these animals increase, 

 and the adverse nature of existing legislation, as indi- 

 cated by the Ground Game Act of 1880, it is extremely 

 doubtful whether such a measure would be generally 

 acceptable. 



One may tell an old rabbit from a young one 

 by feeling the joints of the forelegs. When the 



