A KABBIT SHOOT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 53, 30 August 1913, Page 13

A KABBIT SHOOT

SIX GUNS IN CANTERBURY SOME HOT CORNERS "Canterbury" in the Evening News writes the following racy description of a rabbit snoot : — A thick mist fined into a sunny morning; according to an English calendar, the " 12th August, grouse t hooting begins " ; and from other sources we learned that it was " Grand National Day," and also a holiday of sorta. We felt ill-used by fate; various events debarred us from the pleasures attached to grouse and horses, and it appeared necessary to do something in the way of sport, like all the rest. Said Henry : "My motor is neither lame, halt, nor blind at the present moment. Why not have a day at the rabbits." Three men in the motor of Henry, three others in a motor belonging to William ; that made six guns, which is about the proper number at a rabbit shoot ; for more will only secure confusion, and wild firing, and language to match. To see a great long excited man, dancing round a gorse bush, his ready weapon constantly covering some part of you, does not lead to a feeing of perfect peace ; and if the rabbit will just go away quietly, and the Jong man | fails to ccc him, it is the best 'which can befall. So to the shooting place, at a smooth, level rate of 25 knots, or thereabouts, instead of eight behind the old grey mare, as in former days. I shared the back seat of the motor with Reginald, and two lunch baskets, and two 4pgs, and various, gun-cases, and the largest shooting boots of Henry, with which presumably, he had not found time to adorn his feet- The dog* were strangers, who insisted on fighting furiously at short intervals, and between whiles made common cause against a big spaniel who rode in front ; but wo survived many risks intact, and presently turned through a gateway, bumped over a stony field, and were " there." From the other car emerged a whole throng of dogs — two black, two brown, pne all colours; and scarcely had w© settled the usual question, " How many cartridges are we to take?"- when th« united pack was in full cry, among some high gorse which fringed a terrace. First kill to William ; and then down into a gorsy waste with a stream on the far side-; rabbits dodging everywhere from bush to bush, and a gun left on the terrace giving information of their course. ' " Rabbit coming to you, X," and the specified gun instantly braces himself into startling alertness, peering eagerly on every side in turn, Only to be made limp and ordinary again by later news, " No, it has doubled back. Look out, V"; and so forth, until at last V gets the shot, and possibly the rabbit. Failing this, we must hope that he does not rush excitedly "where he didn't ought," and cause annoyance to his neighbour on right or left. The line should not be broken at the chance of a shot, for when •A has raced ahead in chase of a Supposedly wounded rabbit, and has got himself nioely in front of Bor 0 ; and D has run after another whioh was going back ; and nobody knows what has become of E ; and Fis that sort of man who is likely to shoot at anything in spite of all; the result occasionally may be expressed — , — , — , or words very much to that effect. All along the wide stretch of gorse near the terrace we had sport, and Bhooting in plenty, but then came an interlude of confusion most confounded. In the hope of diminishing the carelessness often seen at a rabbit shoot, 1 notice all these "confusions" particularly ; and should I gain that end, if only jin a single case, I shall have done well. A shot sounded close ahead, fol-^ lowed by three more, and we were" awara of another shooting party — seven fresh guns advancing swiftly to meet our line of six As a fact they were advancing much too swiftly for the good of their purpose. In this kind of work, among thick cover, one simply must " go slow," and give the dogs a proper chance to find quarry, so we waited to let the newcomers pass through. " Individual filing " seemed the general custom, and ander the circumstances the far side of the thickest gorse bush loked an especially friendly spot. I sought that shelter hastily, so did William. Stoicism under fire is doubtless a war-time , virtue, but it may be disregarded at a rabbit shoot, when there is an odds-on chance of affording useless hospitality to a vagrant ounce of "number four." William said, uncomfortingly, " I saw a man shot once, in a mix-up like this," and I believed him in every way. For instance, nobody but a fool would allow himself to be twice shot in the same state of affairs, but for this time we were spared, and the seven guns went on by the way we had come. Then, by degrees, our line re-formed, but the dogs had scattered elsewhere, and a black spaniel waß deaf to every call ; also a gunner of our company, who apparently had " gone to join the rebel army" by mistake. Eventually, we found our strayed partner, nolding a long suit of appetite — so to say — and we made it lunch forthwith. The afternoon shooting generally is responsible for a keavier bag than the hours preceding "sandwich and smoke O." I imagine that nerves are steadied thereby, or the newness of things has worn off ; also, possibly, the reputation shot has at last brought off a miss or two in the morning, and consequently does not pick his opportunities quite so carefully. Perhaps he shoots all the better for that — I think he does — at least the total of slain seems to increase more quickly, and little heaps of rabbits are let at convenient places, "to be called for " later on. We are told "a cat has nine lives." I know a rabbit who had six, and managed to save them all. - My turn l*»d come to guard the terrace, -and from tht higher ground it was most interesting to watch the various proceedings of dog or man. A black deg put that rabbit out suddenly from a close bit of cover, and immediately the nearest gun chanced a couple of the snappiest shots. A little startled by this reception, the rabbit hurried himself accordingly, and crossed an open 6p»ce at racing speed, greeted there by two more shots, each lodging on the shingle a yard behind. Thoroughly scared, bunny put out for his briar patch, like a brown streak ; and a third gun fired one barrel as a sort of last hope, and another to keep it company. Merely it seemed for this reason, and awaj went the rabbit to his burrow under a kowhai tree. The terrace guard certainly is a good watching position, but that afternoon it was little else, and had not Reginald come to aid me, with an active spaniel, I might have passed the hours in meditation, undistmbed. This was by far the most exciting time of the day, for the dog found plenty of game, which eithes broke out along the terrace-top, or gave an opportunity to the gun beneath. Then great was the packing of motors with men and dogs, and by a last piece of luck we recovered our missing spaniel on the homeward road. t

"It ever let your cliild know it has onfy to cry to have anything it wants you are doing the worst thing you t»n for tho. chU<l ll HH = »T.ao Bishop of Bristol, ' ' ~ t