214 THE RABBIT 



' bury of cone)'s,' or if young, 'a nest of rabbettes.' ' 

 The sportsman found a coney 'syttynge,' and when 

 killed, it was not skinned but 'unlacyd,' while the 

 warrener's useful four-footed allies were referred to as 

 a ' besj'nesse of ferettes ' — all very quaint, though the 

 sport itself was pretty much the same then as now. 



Rabbit-hawking has much to recommend it. It 

 is not difficult to carry out in an enclosed country 

 ^vhere long-winged hawks cannot be flown ; it is an 

 effective mode of keeping down the stock of rabbits 

 in places where they are apt to become too numerous ; 

 it may be practised at any season of the year, and, as 

 it may be pursued without any noise, it does not, like 

 shooting, disturb the winged game. As to the sport 

 which it affords to those who participate in it, experto 

 crede. 



The first thing to be done, of course, is to procure 

 a goshawk, and for this one must send to France or 

 Germany. It is very many years since a goshawk's 

 nest was found in Great Britain ; not since Colonel 

 Thornton, of Thornville Royal, Yorkshire, a keen 

 falconer and good all-round sportsman, discovered 

 one in the forest of Rothiemurcus and trained one of 

 the young birds. This was at the end of the last, or 



' See our remarks on the original application of the word 

 rabbit, p. 4. 



