36 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



ideas, the most highly preserved. Many Continental 

 sportsmen object to rabbits, which they say disturb the 

 hares by their restless habits, but I doubt much if this 

 idea is well founded. Others urge, with more pro- 

 bability, that the buck-rabbits kill the leverets. 



Of late years some enormous bags of rabbits have 

 been made in England. I have often been surprised 

 that Australia has not overtopped these, but perhaps 

 the reason is that the rabbits there being destroyed in 

 every way, in and out of season, it would be difficult to 

 arrange a shoot at which the bag would total up to 

 six or seven thousand head. The New Zealanders 

 have been wiser in their acclimatisation, their pheasants 

 flourish exceedingly, and the red deer are also doing 

 well. But why should they stop there ; they have 

 Alps and glaciers, surely the chamois and ibex would 

 succeed among them ? 



Not the least amusing form of rabbit-shooting is 

 that which is obtained when the reaping machine is at 

 work. As it continues its clattering circle, the ground 

 game draw together in the middle of the cornfield, and 

 there they sit so close that I have actually known a 

 hare bound up in a sheaf by a self-binding machine. 

 But as a rule, when only some half to a quarter of an 

 acre remains to be cut, they begin to bolt freely, 

 generally on the opposite side of the field to that the 

 machine happens to be on. The farmer or his friends 

 are generally ready, and there is a good deal of " inde- 

 pendent firing." Great care should be taken, however, 

 that the horses are not likely to take fright at the 

 sound of the guns. A ghastly accident happened from 



