396 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



the day you shoot, as they bolt shortly after the 

 ferrets are put among them. 



When fuse is burnt, rabbits will not come above 

 ground for some hours, and will often remain in their 

 burrows till dark. 



Do not use old ferrets in the burrows, but young 

 ones unmuzzled, each attached to a cord ; these will 

 scratch and tease the rabbits out of their burrows 

 without injuring them, and they will only kill one 

 now and then, which will usually be when two ferrets 

 come together from opposite directions on one rabbit. 

 Ferrets should not be run after four o'clock, as they 

 are night feeders ; and if they fasten to a rabbit in 

 the evening they will not leave it. 



If men are engaged with ferrets in bolting rabbits 

 to make them sit out in the open, in readiness for a 

 day's sport, they should first run their ferrets through 

 the burrows in everv direction, and afterwards close 

 up the holes and peg over them paper soaked in 

 spirits of tar, excepting the one or two outlets that 

 are left for bolt-holes, which can be loosely covered 

 with soil only as before described. 



The strong odour emitted by ferrets has a terrify- 

 ing effect on rabbits, and will haunt a burrow longer 

 than the fumes of burning fuse ; and when a burrow 

 has been thoroughly worked with ferrets and its holes 

 stopped with earth guarded by paper saturated in 

 spirits of tar, it is a bold rabbit that will return 

 home ; though do so he surely will at all risks in the 



