TO SAVE UNDERWOOD 45 



and cause people to think and say that a couple of 

 rabbits are at least a score. When they are shut in a 

 wood by wire netting, they will be almost certain to 

 attack the undergrowth, whereas if free to come and 

 go they would have done no damage to speak about, 

 outside or in. 



The secret at once of preserving a few rabbits and 

 saving the underwood from their attacks is judicious 

 T Save ^ eec ^ n g' Swedes or mangels, and some 

 Under- tightly tied bundles of clover-hay, if thrown 

 W00( * do wnin the rabbits' resorts will prevent much 

 damage, and prove indirectly an excellent invest- 

 ment. The food will go far towards allowing 

 foxes, shooting tenants, farmers, landlords, and the 

 rabbits to dwell together without extraordinary 

 annoyance to each other. Rabbits always have to 

 bear the brunt of much more blame than they deserve, 

 and are continuously persecuted from one year's end 

 to another. Yet they are essential to the well-being 

 alike of foxes and game, and ought to be better re- 

 spected especially when foxes and game in com- 

 bination are considered desirable. The man so 

 anxious to preserve foxes for hounds that he would not 

 object if the foxes ate his last pheasants acts foolishly 

 if he refuses to keep a few rabbits. The foxes will 

 turn more than their usual attention to the pheasants, 

 or they will shift their quarters to where rabbits are to 



