THE RABBIT 
LEPUS CUNICULUS 
S a denizen of our woods and pastures, furzy commons 
and sandy warrens, no wild animal in this country is 
/ better known than the rabbit. Being widely distributed, 
and very prolific when allowed to obtain a foothold, it 
/ has come to be regarded with opposite feelings of approval 
iL. and detestation according to the opinion of the various 
classes whose interests in regard to it have to be considered. From the 
utilitarian standpoint, as providing cheap and good food for the masses, 
the rabbit is undoubtedly a valuable animal, and although on that score 
something may be said for the hare, the higher market price set upon the 
latter causes it to be far less in demand with the majority of consumers. 
As affording sport with the gun to a large number of shooters whose 
purses are not long enough to enable them to rent pheasant or grouse 
shooting— or perhaps even partridge shooting at the enhanced rent asked 
at the present day — ^the rabbit is looked upon as a perfect godsend by 
shooters of small means, while no greater enjoyment can be provided 
for tenant farmers and their friends than a day’s rabbit shooting in the 
woods lying adjacent to their farms or on land which is not in their own 
occupation. Here they not only enjoy a good day’s sport, but have the 
additional satisfaction of helping to reduce the numbers of such as would 
otherwise invade their farms and damage their crops. 
There is yet another class of persons to whom the presence of rabbits 
in their neighbourhood gives undoubted satisfaction, namely, the agri- 
cultural labourer. Unable to share with his employer the concurrent 
right to kill rabbits which is vested in the “ owner ” and “occupier ’’ by 
the provisions of the Ground Game Act, the fact that the land is not in his 
own occupation does not deter him from trapping or snaring a rabbit 
or two now and then as opportunity may serve, for his Sunday’s dinner. 
Nor is the professional poacher to be forgotten, who finds, in the course 
of his experience, that “ ground game ’’ is the easiest of all to take, and 
the easiest to dispose of. Many a small poulterer or fishmonger has no 
objection to hang up a few rabbits, where he might not care to display 
pheasants or partridges for fear of arousing suspicion as to the source of 
supply. Thus there are very many persons who, for one reason or another, 
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