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.