When i was about 10 years old, i was very interested in the countryside, - wildlife and trees etc, and also joined the young ornithologists club. Anything countryside. With friends i also used to go "tracking" in the snow, with home made spears to catch dinner !! Never speared anything.
We also used to search out pheasant "nests" and get the eggs and take them to a local chap who hatched them out and he sold the chicks back to the farmers.
We used to watch a local pit man train his whippets in the welfare field, then follow him working the whippets on rabbits,- there seemed loads of rabbits