RABBITS, in point of law, give rise to many nice questions, which in practical life are of no small importance, for they form a brunch of the game-laws (q.v.). In England and Ireland, whoever is owner of the soil is entitled to catch and kill all the rabbits he finds upon it, without any game license; but if he is not the owner or tenant of the lands, nor by their express direction or permission, then he must have a license. As between landlord and tenant, the rule is, that unless the lease expressly say that the rabbits shall belong to the landlord, they belong to the tenant, who can kill and catch them at discretion. A tenant, however, though having a right to kill rabbits on his farm, cannot give leave to strangers to come on his farm and enjoy a day's sport there, though nothing but rabbits are killed, the privilege of killing the rabbits being personal to the tenant. _Nevertheless, the tenant may employ his servant or a rabbit-catcher to kill the rabbits if they exist in excessive quantities, for in that case he deals with them as vermin. Though rabbits are not game, still they are protected against poachers in precisely the same way; for if any one trespass on land to kill rabbits, he is liable to be fined £5; and he may be arrested, if caught in the act on the lands, and detained, provided he do not tell his name and address, and quit the lands. The rabbits which he has poached
cannot, however, be taken from him by any person, except, only, when he is on the highway, and then only by a constable, who suspects he has poached them. In the lat ter case, viz., where the poacher is stopped on the highway by a constable (and can not be stopped by any other person there), he cannot be taken into custody, but merely is liable to be summoned before justices, and fined. Poachers who take rabbits in the night-time now commit an indictable offense, and not merely an offense which justices can punish summarily. There is no close-time as to rabbits, and any person may buy and sell them without any license. In Scotland, the law does not materially differ from that of England as to rabbits, and the tenant is entitled to kill them if there is no express reservation of them to the landlord. Poachers of rabbits are punished summarily in the same way, and constables on highways may stop poachers as in England. The only difference between the law of England and Ireland is, that in Ireland a game license is not required in any case for killing rabbits, whether the lands are the sportsman's own lands or not. See also GAME, POACIIING. Paterson's Game-lwsof theUnited Kingdom.