XXII. RABBITING RABBITING is the third stage in the shooter's progress. The first may be taken to be the surreptitious practice with pistols at marks, at an age when our fond mothers believed we possessed no such dangerous toys. Then comes the hedge-popping stage, when blackbirds and thrushes, fieldfares and redwings, with sometimes an incautious woodpigeon, formed our prey. It is a question, too, whether those hedge-popping days did not give us the best sport of all. It needed a quick shot to stop a blackbird as it just topped the hedge, and was lost to sight the other side. The long and careful stalks, too, from hedge to hedge, after a flock of redwings and fieldfares, presented all the elements on a smaller scale that are contained in a grander sport; and as we were smaller ourselves, and much more easily satisfied than we are now, why, I think I am not far wrong in saying that we enjoyed our humble sport then quite as well as we have more ambitious sport since. Then, when we aspire to rabbit shooting, we consider ourselves to be fully fledged sportsmen, wanting only the opportunity to distinguish ourselves at anything, from battue shooting to deerstalking. I can well remember the first rabbit I killed. We were ferreting for rats under a haystack, when a rabbit unexpectedly bolted out. I had that day been entrusted with a double-barrelled gun. I fired the first barrel off somewhere or other, being in too much of a hurry to take aim. Fortunately I hit nobody. With the second barrel I managed by a wonderful fluke to hit bunny and lay him kicking on the grass. My second rabbit gave me far more trouble. It frequented the flues under an old brickmaking shed, and when the ferret was put into one of these flues, the rabbit just popped out of the other end of the flue and into the next one as quick as lightning. We went there for three evenings before we could make him give a clean bolt, and then we shot him. In some respects it is fortunate that the rabbit is so prolific, for he is very relentlessly pursued. Farmers, of course, are not very fond of them, and the tenant farmers should always be allowed by their landlords to kill as many of them as they like, upon condition of their preserving the winged game and hares. It may be as well where the preserving is very strict not to allow them to be shot, as it is a very hard thing for a man, when he has a gun in his hand, to resist the temptation of taking a sly shot at a hare or a covey of partridges when nobody is looking. Trapping and ferreting the rabbits ought, however, to be always allowed. With the aid of ferrets we have long odds against the poor rabbits. The very scent of a ferret entering a burrow is sufficient to start bunny off, if he is not aware that there are other ememies waiting for him outside. Then he will not bolt until he is absolutely compelled. Ferrets and rabbiting are so closely concerned, that it may not be amiss if I say a few words concerning the former. Any boy reading this chapter may thank me for a few practical hints, which those who have no interest in them can skip. It is no easy matter to keep ferrets in good condition, and it is still harder to rear a litter of young ones successfully. Useful information, too, is hard to get, as I found when I used to keep ferrets, which I did much against the wish of my people at home. I confess to feeling a liking for these useful little animals, and I used to pet them so much, that they grew quite fond of me, and would let me do what |