12G EEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAX, 



CHAP. XII. 



BABBITS. — BOG TAX IN IRELAND. — BREEDING OE RABBITS. — WORM 

 IN R.iBBII. INJURY TO FARMERS. FARMING IN CAMBRIDGE- 

 SHIRE, 



" From rabbits young, fi'om rabbits old, 

 From rabbits hot, from rabbits cold, 

 F:fom rabbits tender, rabbits tough, 

 Thank you, my lord. I've had enough." 



Grace of a 2^obIeman's Chcq)Jahi, 



I WILL now speak about a small animal wliich has been 

 the cause, I verily believe, of more bad feeling and 

 disputes between landlord and tenant than all the game 

 put together — I mean the rabbit. Its habits are very 

 mischievous to the agriculturist and to gentlemen's 

 woods and plantations, more especially in a severe winter. 

 I wish to be understood that this great mischief to cul- 

 tivated lands and woods, takes place only, when gentle- 

 men, by means of their gamekeepers, allow these prolific 

 animals (or indeed they almost deserve the name of 

 vermin) to overstock the woods and fields, and most 

 gentlemen know well that when a keeper receives 

 encouragement from his master to keep up a great stock 

 of rabbits, he is never backward in doing this. For, as 

 I have observed in another part of this work, these men 

 are very apt to consider the rabbits as their perquisite. 



