92 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



and will even in his last kick roU over into a hole if he can, and sell 

 you at last. 



No doubt our young friend is an affliction to the farmer when he 

 does not belong to him, and when he has not the right of trapping. 

 Somehow, when these things are otherwise he is found to be very much 

 more endurable. There is no doubt that a lot of rabbits (still more a 

 lot of hares, because they not only eat more but travel further) wiU 

 polish off a good deal of sustenance, and do a good deal of damage. 

 StiU, it must always be remembered that they are not wholly valueless, 

 as seems to be assumed, in themselves ; but this is not the place to 

 decide the great and burning " bunny question," though he is a useful 

 beast to both landlords and tenants at times. "When I took a shooting in 

 early life my landlord farmed his own land. I went to look at the house, 

 and shortly walked over the fields, beat up a few hedgerows, saw some 

 birds, found plenty of rabbits in the hedges close home, and concluded 

 to take. Soon after I was landed my landlord began grumbling about 

 the rabbits and the mischief they were doing the young wheat. I had 

 only come in at the fag-end of the season, therefore I hadn't increased 

 the stock. Nevertheless, I found that he commenced treating the nearer 

 holes to a dressing of coal tar and oakum, which I did not like, and 

 some time after I found out that this nice old party, in view of my 

 coming to "view," had turned most of these very rabbits down in the 

 hedges to induce me to take, and when I was safe he wanted to be rid 

 of them again. 



It has been the fashion to look down on the astuteness of the British 

 farmer on the part of those who never had any dealings with him, 

 and have no practical knowledge of him. I have an idea that he knows 

 his way about, and is no more of a fool than, if so much as, the rest of 

 the population. 



Rabbit shooting is good fun, though perhaps the least lively method 

 is ferreting. For this a fine day, with not too much wind, is indispensable, 

 for in wet and windy weather the rabbits bolt badly, and rabbits are 

 sometimes very obstinate in this respect, and will allow the ferret to 

 scratch and tear them severely before they will move. A couple or 



