CHAPTER IX 



HARES AND RABBITS 



Hares more satisfactory than rabbits Keep your hares quiet Hares 

 and hounds Hare disease Damage by hares Rabbits, rats, 

 and roots How rabbits use their teeth Hares and holes- 

 Shooting hares Rabbit-shooters Warm work. 



I WAS so fortunate as to have a sprinkling of hares 

 on all the land over which I was keeper. And as 

 I was obliged to keep down rabbits if possible, 

 to the point of extinction I saw no reason why I 

 should not compromise matters by getting up the 

 hares. A bag of twenty hares was considered very 

 good for one day. We got twenty at my first 

 covert shoot. Then the bag rose to forty (which 

 was equal to the known record for the wood), and 

 after another year or so to fifty. The most we ever 

 got was sixty-four; and that was in two-thirds of 

 the wood, when the rest was cut down and bare. 

 Though the largest, it was the worst hare covert 

 I had. It is fair to the covert to say that not a 

 yard of netting was used when the sixty-four hares 

 were killed, and that they were obtained incidentally 

 with eighty-two wild pheasants. I suppose that, 



133 



