126 THE RABBIT 



CHAPTER V 



TRAPPING, SNARING, NETTING, AND BOLTING 



By these terms are understood the various methods 

 or devices usually employed for killing or capturing 

 wild rabbits. It is, of course, true that other creatures 

 besides rabbits, to wit so-called ' vermin,' may be 

 trapped, snared, or netted as occasion may require, 

 but this does not at present concern us. 



The best known form of trap for taking rabbits or 

 vermin is the gin. This word, as now commonly 

 applied, is generally understood to mean an iron spring 

 trap, though it did not always bear that signification. 

 It is a very old word. The author of the treatise on 

 ' Fyshynge with an Angle,' printed in the second 

 edition of the 'Book of St. Alban's,' 1496, alluding to 

 the avocation of the fowler, saith ' many a gynne and 

 many a snare he makyth.' Shakespeare has employed 



