IXJURY TO FARMERS BY RABBITS. 133 



the scent. On this occasion one of the farmers treated 

 us»most hospitably, and we talked over the day's sport 

 with as much glee and mirth as would old foxhunters 

 after an excellent run. I had at this time a troop in 

 the Scots Greys, and was quartered at Dorchester. 

 There is no pastime that boys are more partial to than 

 going ferreting during the holidays. This is done with 

 ferrets and purse nets. The ferret's mouth should be 

 muzzled to prevent his killing the rabbits. The ferret 

 is then sent into the hole to drive them out, but the 

 purse nets being spread over the opening of the holes, 

 the rabbit, to avoid his dangerous enemy, plunges into 

 them, and is made captive; a bag net may be placed at 

 a short distance from the burrows, so that very few will 

 escape. I have heard that in some warrens the war- 

 reners have resorted to the cruel practice of sewing up 

 loosely the mouths of the ferrets before they turn them 

 into the rabbit burrows, but I believe the more general 

 way of taking rabbits is by trapping. 



Eabbits will occasionally, if much alarmed, take to 

 the water. As a proof of this, a gentleman w^as shoot- 

 ing near Biddeford, in December 1857, on the banks of 

 the Torridge, when the spaniels drove a rabbit out of a 

 plantation, but did not chase it; still bunny was alarmed, 

 and, under this fear, braved the perils of the deep, by 

 deliberately swimming into the river, and gallantly going 

 a distance of 200 yards to the other side, when she got 

 into safe quarters. The Prefect of one of the depart- 

 ments of France, in 1857, authorised the proprietors of 

 woods, and the lessees of the right of sporting in the 

 royal forests and the communes, to make two battues per 

 week for the destruction of rabbits, and other animals 

 that do injury to the crops, and permitted the sale 

 B 3 



