RABBIT SHOOTING. 55 



bolt. Then the noise ceases suddenly — he has heard, seen, or 

 got wind of his enemies outside — again the scamper of feet within, 

 and this time he does bolt — suddenly, unexpectedly, as straight 

 and swiftly as a cricket ball from a fast bowler's hand. A shot, 

 a second, a third, a fourth, in quick succession; both "guns' 

 have done their hardest, and in vain. There is shouting and 

 laughing ; the terriers give tongue and give chase ; and before 

 twenty can be counted the rabbit has run the gauntlet of ferret, 

 guns, and dogs, and is safe ; presently he is underground again, 

 a quarter of a mile away. 



This is not scientific sport, so conducted, but it is the very best 

 fun in the world, and is going on in thousands of English home- 

 steads in this frost-bound month of February. I once read in a 

 magazine or newspaper the sentence, " the thoroughly English 

 sport of ferreting for rabbits," but in truth it must be the least 

 English of all our field sports, seeing that the rabbit almost 

 certainly is not an English animal, but was brought not many 

 centuries ago from Spain, and the ferret is quite certainly an 

 African polecat, and could never have been fetched from Africa 

 till rabbits were common enough in England to make it worth 

 while to keep this very uninteresting and most unpleasant little 

 animal in captivity. One says captivity with intention, for 

 though half-tamed, the ferret is never really domesticated. 



