S.L. 549.90 Art. 2Interpretation.

For the purpose of these regulations and unless the context otherwise requires:

"the Act" means the Environment Protection Act; "air rifle" means a weapon which fires projectiles by means of compressed gas and, or air; "closed season" means those periods which fall outside the open season during which no shooting or capturing of wild rabbit shall be allowed;

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Police; "dog" means a dog trained or bred to assist a person in finding or retrieving wild game; "general licence" means a permit issued in accordance with these regulations and which satisfies the criteria listed in Schedule I and, or other conditions which may be stipulated by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit from time to time in accordance with these regulations; "inhabited area" means any area in which there is an aggregation of houses inhabited or capable of being inhabited by more than one hundred persons;

"open season" means the period as established in regulation 6, during which the shooting or capture of wild rabbit shall be allowed; "organisation representing persons licensed to shoot or capture wild rabbit" means an organisation having paid-up members, a statute, a committee which is elected at least once every three years, is enrolled with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations and which has its accounts verified and certified by a qualified auditor and approved by the general meeting of the organisation;

"pellet" means a projectile designed to be fired from an air rifle; "rabbit net" or "net" means a net used exclusively to capture wild rabbit and no other species whatsoever; such net shall have a mesh size not smaller than 40mm and is to be operated manually by the person licensed to capture or shoot wild rabbit;

* but see regulation 8 of Legal Notice 133 of 2016. "restricted area" means any of the Bird Sanctuaries and, or beaches listed in Schedules V and VII of the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations, and, or within a distance of 50 metres from main or arterial roads, areas within 200 metres from towns, villages and other inhabited areas, as well as the area at Rdum tal-Madonna designated on site plan enclosed in Schedule III or any other area designated as such by the Minister through a notice in the Gazette; "shooting" means to hunt by using a fire-arm or any other weapon for hunting, which by burning propellant or by means of compressed air, fires a projectile or projectiles; "shot" means projectiles, contained in a cartridge, excluding the gun powder and wad; "shotgun" means a weapon which fires projectiles by burning propellant; "to capture" or "capturing" means to capture live specimens of wild rabbit using nets, dogs and, or ferrets and does not include to shoot, shooting and the use of firearms or air rifles;

"to train" or "training" means the training of any dog and, or, ferret of the necessary skills to capture wild rabbit:

Provided that this activity shall be exempt from the provisions of these regulations where the training is conducted without the use of any net, firearm, air rifle or any ammunition, and without the intention to capture or kill wild rabbit and that no such capture or killing of wild rabbit occurs, and that during such training any ferret shall be muzzled at all times; "weapon" means an air rifle or a shotgun; "Wild Birds Regulation Unit" means the Wild Birds Regulation Unit established in accordance with the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations.