174 THE RABBIT 



amount of rent which he is able to secure for it. For 

 no shooting tenant now-a-days will give as much rent 

 as he would be willing to pay if the landlord could 

 let him the exclusive right to kill hares and rabbits, 

 which under the new regime he is unable to do, 

 unless he happens to be an owner in occupation of 

 his own land. 



Shooting tenants with some reason complain that 

 things are very much altered for the worse. They 

 find that the tenants, or ' occupiers ' as they are 

 termed in the Act, under cover of exercising their 

 privileges and keeping down the ground game, are 

 perpetually disturbing the ground at all seasons of the 

 year. ^Vhether the partridges or pheasants are sitting 

 or have led off their broods makes no difference to 

 them. The)' are trapping, wiring, or shooting all the 

 year round, and the evidence adduced on the hearing 

 of summonses for trespass in pursuit of game shows 

 only too plainly that they are not always careful to con- 

 fine their attention to fur, but kill winged game when 

 they think they can do so without risk of detection. 

 The result of this constant disturbance of the ground, 

 especially during the egging season, is only too 

 apparent when the first of September comes round. 

 The frequent ferreting of the hedgerows causes many 

 a partridge to desert the eggs, and those which contrive 



