EFFECTS OF SHOT. 105 



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 generally 

 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 without giving him much 

 progress. The effects of shot are very strange, and some- 

 times almost inexplicable ; 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 

 midst of their career, roll head over heels dead. Both 

 hares and rabbits are occasionally killed with marks of old 

 shot wounds, but not very often, and they are but of a 

 slight character the pellets are found just under the skin, 

 with a kind of lump round them. Shot holes through the 

 ears are frequently seen, of course doing no serious harm. 



Now and then a rabbit hit in the head will run round 



