RABBIT-SHOOTING. 39 



kerosene oil or some similarly strong-smelling com- 

 pound. Alarmed by this strange object, which is 

 terrifying both to the sense of sight and that of smell, 

 the rabbits will not attempt to re-enter the burrow. 

 It then only remains to hope for fine weather till the 

 day fixed for the shoot, and, provided there are plenty 

 of rabbits on the estate, a good day's sport can be 

 confidently relied upon. 



Nor is the " harmless necessary " bunny so easy to 

 shoot as may be imagined. For the guns who may 

 be posted in fairly open ground there is no difficulty. 

 But it is often the case that some one must be placed 

 in a narrow " ride," where the rabbits go across like 

 lightning. Or the post may be surrounded with 

 clumps of young brushwood, which are sadly apt to 

 receive the charge of shot intended for " brer rabbit." 

 Many men, who make a very fair show among the 

 heather or turnips, are sadly bothered by the rabbit's 

 idiosyncrasies, especially if they have not had much 

 practice at them lately. After a few years in India, I 

 must own myself to having performed very badly my 

 first day or tw 7 o among the bunnies. 



Let me put my old diaries under contribution 

 again for a day's rabbit shooting. Ah ! here is one, 

 on which driven rabbits, which had been previously 

 ferreted out, formed, if not quite the sole, at all 

 events the principal contents of the day's bag. 



In the month of October, 18 , I received a letter 

 from an old friend and brother officer, asking me to 

 come down to his place on the Gloucestershire and 

 Somersetshire border to shoot at the end of the 



