398 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



this, or from their position they cannot be thus 

 treated, you may have to dig most of the rabbits out 

 and turn them loose, afterwards stopping all the 

 holes you can with earth topped by paper soaked as 

 usual in spirits of tar. 



You may catch the rabbits and at once allow them 

 their freedom if there is shelter at hand in which 

 they can eventually sit to the gun. If there is not 

 convenient shelter near, place the rabbits in hampers 

 (on no account in sacks) and take them to some spot 

 that does afford them temporary protection till you pro- 

 pose to shoot them. If you have no shelter of any kind, 

 leave the rabbits unmolested, or kill them with ferrets 

 and purse nets if it is advisable to dimmish their 

 numbers, as turning rabbits adrift in a homeless 

 state on bare ground in cold or wet is a cruel and 

 wasteful act. 



I have seen rabbits run in first-rate form when 

 caught alive and placed in a wood or on a heath, and 

 I have seen others that could not do so, solely because 

 in one case the rabbits when captured were handled 

 carefully, and in the other they were roughly treated. 

 When a keeper or his men are taking rabbits alive to 

 turn down in the open, they should never hold a rabbit 

 by the hind legs, for if the animal struggles or kicks 

 (as of course he does) when thus grasped he will cer- 

 tainly be strained, and as a result be unable to run 

 well when expected to do so. Seize a live rabbit by 

 the skin of the back or neck, then drop him gently 



