112 THE RABBIT 



brushwood is followed by silence as the beagles 

 come up and find their quarry dead. 



Soon another rabbit is found, and once more the 

 wood re-echoes the cry of the hounds, broken by the 

 quick report as a shot rings out, which, however, 

 does not always mean the death of a rabbit. Some- 

 times the rabbit will come quietly dodging along 

 through the brushwood, affording an easy pot shot ; 

 but more frequently, especially when hard pressed, 

 he dashes along at lightning speed. Occasionally 

 hounds will succeed in killing a rabbit, or in driving 

 him to ground. As a general rule, the burrows are 

 ferreted a day or two before, and the holes either 

 stopped up or ' paraffined ' in order to make the 

 rabbits lie out and afford more sport. Old hands at 

 the sport can tell at once when the beagles get on 

 the line of a hare, and then out comes the pipe, the 

 gun is put down against a tree, and the shooter takes 

 things coolly, until warned by the approaching music 

 that the hare has circled round, and hounds are then 

 stopped and encouraged to pursue their more legiti- 

 mate sport. Needless to say, the beagles used for 

 rabbit-shooting must not be gun-shy. It is seldom that 

 they work long at a burrow when once a rabbit goes 

 to ground — and in this respect they are greatly to be 

 preferred to terriers, that will often half bury them- 



