Popular Poachers
Since so much has been written of late and is being written of that highly unpatriotic animal, the rabbit, it is pertinent to quote a particular example of reform. Over an area very thickly inhabited by rabbits the owner of the land gave all workmen leave to destroy the rabbits, whose numbers he himself had failed to control, even by the use of poison-gas. Within a marvellously short time the population was very nearly txterrninated. More than this: it is found on these particular acres, as elsewhere, that the reduction of rabbits has been followed by the increase of winged game. The local poacher, in short (for he usually prefers fur to feather), is the best friend of the game-preserver. That most charming of birds, that most perfect of parents, the partridge, has increased all over England thanks largely to better farming ; but the war on rabbits has helped.
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