HUNTING WITH FERRETS 



number of rabbits. If you did not know how 

 to hunt them, and went there with or without 

 a dog, you would undoubtedly believe that it 

 was the poorest place on earth for the sport. 

 Yet, as a matter of fact, dozens of well-fed 

 and respectable rabbits are to be found com- 

 fortably stowed away in the bowels of the 

 earth underneath those same hills. They are 

 of the cave-dwelling brand, and feeding, as 

 rabbits do, almost entirely by night, they 

 retire to their burrows or holes in the day- 

 time and are not to be got out except by 

 means of the offices of the harmful, necessary 

 ferret. 



The ferret is not a pleasing beast to look 

 upon, or to handle. He is a long, sinuous, 

 weasel-like looking " critter," of a dirty black 

 or tawny yellow color, and he is always out 

 for blood. He is very fond of rabbits in a 

 sanguinary way, and the sight of him, even 

 in the subterranean gloom of a burrow, gives 

 the average rabbit " the fan-tods." The fer- 

 ret's walk is a sort of creepy glide, very 

 snaky, very sinister; he pokes along, snuffing 

 the air stealthily, his beady black eyes wear- 

 ing a thoughtful expression, and his whole 

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