Hedgerow Life 
can have it if they only try. You may 
even move, if you do so very quietly and 
slowly. I have walked nearly up to a 
rabbit before now in the open ; it is true 
it was a young one. I shouldn’t have 
been able to do so after the shooting 
season had begun, for they soon learn 
how necessary it is to be careful. They 
have very good reason for learning that 
lesson. Out of the dozens of rabbits 
here under our feet, not a single one 
will die a natural death. Those which 
escape being shot by the keeper or his 
master will be caught by stoats, foxes, 
weasels, badgers, or come somehow to 
a sudden end. They have plenty of 
enemies, but out of them all stoats and 
weasels must be the most deadly. The 
foxes’ cunning enables them to catch 
plenty of rabbits ; but the rabbit is artful, 
71 
