102 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



short distance he has to traverse. Perhaps the hind 

 legs will be broken ; well, then he will drag them 

 along behind him, using the fore paws with astonish- 

 ing rapidity and power. Before the second barrel 

 can be emptied he will gain the shelter of the fern 

 that grows on the edge of the bank and dive into a 

 burrow, there to die in misery. So that it is much 

 better to steadily 'pot' him. Besides which, if a 

 rabbit dies in a burrow all the other animals in that 

 particular burrow desert it till nature's scavengers 

 have done their work. A dog cannot well be taken 

 while stalking — not that dogs will not follow quietly, 

 but because a rabbit, catching sight of a dog, is gene- 

 rally stricken with panic even if a hundred yards away, 

 and bolts immediately. 



I have seen a rabbit whose back was broken 

 by shot drag itself ten yards to the ditch. If the 

 forelegs are broken, then he is helpless : all the kicks 

 of the hind legs only tumble him over and over with- 

 out giving him much progress. The effects of shot 

 are very strange, and sometimes almost inexpli- 

 cable : as when a hare which has received a pellet 

 through the edge of the heart runs a quarter of a 

 mile before dropping. It is noticed that hares and 

 rabbits, hit in the vital organs about the heart, often 

 run a considerable distance, and then, suddenly in the 



