RABBIT SHOOTING 



FROM potting the unsuspecting rabbit sitting at his front 

 door, and spoiling two blades of grass for every one he 

 eats, to killing rabbits hunted out of heather by spaniels, there 

 is nearly as wide a difference as the whole range of the shot 

 gun embraces. The rabbit is said to be the schoolboy's game, 

 but the schoolboy might fairly retort that this is because the 

 seniors cannot hit him. He is certainly the easiest and also the 

 hardest to kill of all the British food for powder. It just 

 depends upon how he is treated whether he is worthy to be 

 called a sporting beast or not. A rabbit in strange ground, or 

 one that knows he cannot get home, is the poorest-hearted little 

 beast possible, and is even too much afraid to run away. Then 

 we are often told what splendid sport rabbits make for the gun 

 when hunted by beagles. This is a fraud. It sounds pretty, 

 but in practice all the rabbits but one will be sitting up trimming 

 their whiskers with their fore feet and listening to the direction 

 of the hunt, for the beagles' pack, and so only one rabbit is 

 being hunted at any one time. If you are watching a rabbit 

 and hear the hunt turn, you will get ready for the time the 

 creature runs. But he will not run ; he will merely hop quietly 

 out of the line of the hunt, and sit up to listen some more. 



In bracken that is not too thick the rabbit may bolt, but 

 when it is very thick the author has watched rabbits defeat a 

 whole team of spaniels by the higher strategic operation of 

 sitting quite still. In this stuff you see them at your toes, 

 much too near to shoot, and cannot see them at all when they 

 are far enough away for half a load of shot not to smash them. 

 If you want pretty rabbit shooting, you must have dogs that 



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