246 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



The gamekeeper is called upon to regard the rabbit 

 in a variety of aspects, and these may be thus categori- 

 cally enumerated ( i ) As vermin ; (2) as a compara- 

 tively unprotected and unpreserved occupant of a 

 shooting estate ; and (3) as a member of a carefully 

 preserved and systematically protected warren ; and 

 in dealing with him in the latter capacity the keeper 

 has to view him either as part of a farm that is, when 

 the rabbit is preserved mainly for market purposes 

 or as part of a sporting property that is, when he is 

 preserved for the purposes of shooting. 



He will most likely be called upon to view the 

 rabbit as vermin in the following cases : ( i ) On a good 

 moor, generally ; (2) proximate to good partridge 

 cover; (3) and near to special cultivated ground as, 

 for instance, farms, gardens, lawns, and the like. 



Many owners have no objection to a stock of rabbits 

 existing on their moors, but in every way they are to 

 be regarded as a pest, especially in those cases where 

 shooting is practised over dogs, or by simply walking 

 up the birds. Many a brace of birds has been missed 

 owing to the fact that the barrels of the shooter have 

 been loosed on a rabbit. On this account it is as well 

 that the rabbit should be exterminated on a moor, and 

 not only on this account, but also in view of the 

 voracious habits of the beast, and more particularly on 

 account of the fouling of the ground by its excretions. 

 There are cases, however, on small and badly stocked 

 properties, where the chance of an occasional rabbit 



