TRAPPING, SNARING, NETTING, ^c. 141 



but as a rule they escape on account of their feeding 

 at a greater distance from covert, and, being very 

 cautious when alarmed, they break away right or left 

 instead of going forward, while rabbits will rush back 

 to the place they came from as fast as their legs can 

 carry them. Indeed, so prone are they to do this, 

 that it is not always necessary to get right round the 

 field before beginning to drive them, for they will 

 commence to run home if man or dog shows up on 

 either side of them, or even between them and the 

 net. To save time and to ensure pushing up any 

 rabbits that may be squatting, a long line, called by 

 poachers ' a dead dog,' is sometimes used and is trailed 

 across the field by a man at each end. 



It may so happen that an owner of coverts may 

 not require to use ' long-nets ' on his ground, having 

 no occasion to send any large number of rabbits away 

 at one time. Or he may prefer to shoot them, or 

 leave them to the tender mercies of the warrener and 

 his ferrets. In this case it will be well to see that 

 poachers are not allowed a chance to help themselves 

 in this way, and a keeper or watcher should go round 

 the coverts every night, or every other night, and run 

 the rabbits in, taking care to see by daylight that the 

 fields lying round it have been well ' bushed.' After 

 being treated like this for a time, the rabbits will 



