From potting the unsuspecting rabbit sitting at his front door, and spoiling two blades of grass for every one he eats, to killing rabbits hunted out of heather by spaniels, there is nearly as wide a difference as the whole range of the shot gun embraces. The rabbit is said to be the schoolboy’s game, but the schoolboy might fairly retort that this is because the seniors cannot hit him. He is certainly the easiest and also the hardest to kill of all the British food for powder. It just depends upon how he is treated whether he is worthy to be called a sporting beast or not. A rabbit in strange ground, or one that knows he cannot get home, is the poorest-hearted little beast possible, and is even too much afraid to run away. Then we are often told what splendid sport rabbits make for the gun when hunted by beagles. This is a fraud. It sounds pretty, but in practice all the rabbits but one will be sitting up trimming their whiskers with their fore feet and listening to the direction of the hunt, for the beagles’ pack, and so only one rabbit is being hunted at any one time. If you are watching a rabbit and hear the hunt turn, you will get ready for the time the creature runs. But he will not run; he will merely hop quietly out of the line of the hunt, and sit up to listen some more.

In bracken that is not too thick the rabbit may bolt, but when it is very thick the author has watched rabbits defeat a whole team of spaniels by the higher strategic operation of sitting quite still. In this stuff you see them at your toes, much too near to shoot, and cannot see them at all when they are far enough away for half a load of shot not to smash them. If you want pretty rabbit shooting, you must have dogs that do not “open,” or else beaters. In fair undergrowth, in which one can just see to shoot sometimes, rabbits when at home will make for their holes fast enough, and they take shooting. But for difficulty in covert they are as nothing compared with rabbits that have well used runs through fairly long heather. Sometimes in running they will be under the heather, and even under the level of the ground in the broken surface; sometimes they will be above the heather. You will probably try to shoot a little in front of them as they turn and twist along their runs at great speed, but nothing makes a shooter feel so foolish as shooting so much in front that the quarry never at any time gets as forward as the shot went. The heather rabbit is quite capable of creating this feeling, for when you lose sight of him he frequently changes his course just as if he knew that his enemy was noted for shooting well in front. Where under covert is very thick indeed, the author has never seen pretty rabbit shooting, although he has seen fearless spaniels trying to make the rabbits run, and succeeding in making them crawl and hop by turns, but run very rarely indeed. They seem to know that the spaniels cannot catch them in such places. Rabbit shooting on a grand scale is nearly always a failure. You kill the numbers, no doubt; but in order that you should do it the rodents have been ferreted or “stunk” out of their holes, and the latter have been stopped up, and most of the quarry appear to know they are in a trap, and are philosophical enough to think that it is useless to run without having a place to run to. You can certainly drive rabbits past the guns, but you cannot always make them run. In only fairly thick under covert, with rides for the guns to stand, fair sport is often obtained. You may see the rabbits come up to the ride and then stop and hide. They fear to cross. Then, when they are obliged to go, they make a rush of it; evidently they know their danger, and think safety lies in speed. If they can be got to cross like this, there is sport in it, provided the rides are not too wide. If they are wide, you make a certainty of your shot, and the sport is less. The best sporting width is that which causes an uncertainty as to whether the shot succeeded, and an examination in the bushes to see whether the shot was well or ill timed. That is to say, the best sport is when the bushes take up a lot of the pellets and the rabbit is out of sight before the snap shot is off.

Gas tar is as good as anything to keep rabbits out of their holes. It is not bad when properly employed to get them out. But as strong-smelling stuffs are generally used, they keep the rabbits in their holes for one, two, or three nights, until hunger compels an exit past the paper dipped in tar. It is a good plan to put the paper down the holes only on the windward side of the burrows; this has the effect of blowing the smell through the whole of the compartments, but leaves open bolt holes where nothing will impede. The next day the other side of the burrow can be doctored, and this will prevent re-entry. After this, shooting may take place without many uninjured rabbits going to ground, but the wounded will go in and die there; consequently, there is nothing like stopping out if the rabbits can be got out. A very effective plan for this is the use of a line ferret. It is best not to let the ferret try and bolt the rabbits; that takes too much time. But if it is run through the holes one day and tar-paper is inserted the next, most of the rabbits will be found to have had pressing business elsewhere. Consequently, they can be shot, and give better sport than if they had been subjected to back-scratching by the ferret’s poison claws. But probably the best way of all, where the holes are not amongst rocks, is to fill up all entrances with a clod of soil or turf and sprinkle the latter with gas tar or spirits of tar. Twenty-four hours later the process has to be repeated, for the rabbits will have scratched out. This should be repeated every day until the shoot occurs, but only the first stopping will be much trouble; there will be few holes to stop afterwards. In trying to make a big bag it is very necessary to put down netting to keep the rabbits off the beaten ground. Stops will do, but are not as effective as the net.

The preservation of rabbits implies, of course, the destruction of vermin, especially cats. The next necessity is fresh blood in January or February, and early and close shooting or trapping. Rabbits degenerate quicker than most animals, and in-breeding and stale ground are the worst causes. On some soils lime-dressing seems to be absolutely necessary for the continued health and reproductive powers of rabbits in warrens. Out of warrens, and especially where they are not wanted, nothing seems to injure them. Neither disease, vermin, nor the schoolboy’s gun will do them any damage where they are not encouraged. This is probably because they are most healthy where they are most scarce, and it is only nature’s justice that if they poison the grass they should poison themselves also.

Shooting rabbits over ferrets requires much more attention than it is worth. The rabbit always seems to bolt well when the shooter is not attending; when he is all expectation, the rabbit comes and looks at him, pokes his head out of the hole, where to shoot him would be to destroy his value. Then, just as the ferret must be getting up to the quarry’s tail to make him bolt, the head disappears and is seen no more. Then in ten minutes or half an hour the experienced person says it will be necessary to dig, because the ferret is lying up, or if he is muzzled he is probably pounded, with rabbits’ backs to scratch on all sides of him, but no rabbits to bolt. Then, when the most unexpected event does take place, and the rabbits do bolt well, those you wound are sure to go to ground with a broken leg or shoulder, and so stop proceedings, either by detaining the ferret or by informing their fellows. Ferreting is not nearly as good sport as shooting stopped-out rabbits. When beaters for the latter are used, they should make no noise. The object is not that the quarry should quietly canter along in front of a line of guns, but you will want them to lie well, so that when disturbed in close contact with some beater’s stick they may run well. The former they will do if there is fair covert to lie in and no noise, not even “tapping” of sticks. The latter they will do if they are poked up with a stick instead of being thrashed up with a stake. The biggest record of rabbit shooting is that of 5096 rabbits to nine guns in the day. This was in 1885, in Mr. J. Lloyd Price’s Rhiwlas warren. The load of shot best for shooting warren rabbits, or any others if other game is not to be bagged, is ¾ oz. of No. 3 shot. This saves plastering, and enables both near shots and long ones to be taken. It was the load used with Schultze powder when the bag above mentioned was made. Perhaps it is not correct to talk of a bag of rabbits when such wilful slaughter occurs. There must have been between seven and eight tons of rabbits for that one day’s work.

If rabbits come out from a covert to feed in a rough banky grass field, one that will afford good sport if the rabbits lie out in it, this can be brought about by means of wire netting, the lower part of which is set so as to fall by the pulling of a string. However, half the fun is lost when rabbits are shot out of woods. This plan for keeping the beasts out of their coverts is perhaps more useful in snow when the trees are in danger, and when, too, the rabbits highly appreciate the hay in the sheep racks. Indeed, feeding with £5 worth of hay would often save £500 worth of young trees.

The enclosing of warrens with wire netting is a simple matter, and the principle should be that rabbits can get in but cannot get out. This is easy enough to arrange. There must be turned-in wire at both the top and bottom, and turned-out wire at the bottom. This rests on the ground, and there is no need to put it underneath. About 6 inches of turning-in is enough. Three feet 6 inches is about the best height for wire, although if the ground is quite flat probably 3 feet and an over-lap of 6 inches to prevent climbing from the inside is enough. Then if, on the outside in several places, a wall of turf is built as high as the fencing, and a single turf is laid as a lead on to the overlay of netting, rabbits will enter freely, but will not get out again. It is thought best to use graduated wire, very small at the ground in order to keep in the young ones, but it may be that the warrener will wish the young ones to fare the best, and in that case, if the crops outside permit, it may be a help to the young rabbits to let them escape through netting that keeps in the old ones. They will all come in again some time by means of the external turf walls, and then, having grown big, will have to remain.