Rabbits 97 



play at a distance from the grass is an advantage. It 

 is doubtless their instinct of what is necessary for 

 health which drives them to make such desperate 

 efforts at escape. Where there is no restraint at 

 night, they roam frantic and far, for it is common to 

 find traces of them miles from any burrow. 



The wire fence must be planned as well to bar the 

 way in as the way out. Young rabbits do especially 

 rejoice in enemies. There is hardly a bird of carnivo- 

 rous habit but esteems them (as Mr. Swinburne says 

 of other game) most ' delicate and desirable.' The 

 owl, skimming heath and bracken at dusk, makes off 

 with -one whenever he has the chance ; the carrion 

 crow and the rook pounce on the little creatures in 

 the act of taking their morning bath of sunlight on 

 the green grass outside the parent burrow ; there is not 

 a hawk but delights in them ; and even the sombre 

 and lonely heron, that long-legged, patient eremite, 

 will gobble them up if they venture near the bush 

 where he stands sentinel. No fence is a protection 

 against these ; but with trap and gun the keeper may 

 easily keep them from doing serious damage. No 

 fence will keep out the poachers on four legs. The 

 rat, as we have seen, will burrow his way in ; when he 

 is there he plays havoc with his finds ; and, as with 

 the birds, there is nothing for it but to shoot, ferret, 

 and trap. That net would be fine of mesh indeed 

 through which the weasel could not squeeze his obscene 

 slenderness ; but he has a queer fancy for ' trusting to 



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