THE GUN 119 



new sown field, seeing a dead rook tied to the top of a 

 stick, and arguing : " That rook has come to a bad end 

 in this field : we had better go away, lest we, too, are 

 killed by that enemy of ours who tills this field?" 

 The dead rook on the stick may warn the rooks and 

 wood pigeons in another way. It is something very 

 visible, something unusual and alien to Nature. This 

 may keep off the rooks and pigeons for a time, though 

 an old boot or bit of fluttering rag would serve as well. 

 So the scarecrow acts, but not in the way the bird 

 scarer often supposes. Reason, save in a most primary 

 form, is not shown by the rook that shuns the scare- 

 crow. 



Perhaps the keeper sets the mind of a wild rabbit 

 too high. But others may set it too low. It is some 

 years since I first noticed the wariness of rabbits on 

 the breezy common, where their wits are constantly 

 sharpened in winter by dogs and guns. Across the 

 common stretches a belt of thorn and scrub, where the 

 rabbits lie out in their " forms " among dead ferns and 

 grass tussocks. Sometimes I have shot in this belt 

 with dogs two or three times a week, as the game is 

 plentiful and a woodcock often lies there. Many of 

 the rabbits grow so wary after the belt has been shot 

 a few times in the season that they will rise from their 

 forms as soon as they hear the dogs giving tongue, and 

 will slip off a hundred yards ahead of the guns. But, 

 far more remarkable, they will avoid certain open 

 spots at which a gun is usually stationed. I noticed 



