4OO LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



don't mind we will just walk through these two or 

 three rough fields in case they hold a few rabbits ; ' 

 and the few rabbits, if the netting dodge the night 

 before was a success, may easily mean a hundred or 

 more to the bag ! 



There is unfortunately an if in everything, for if 

 the night is clear and cairn the rabbits will see and 

 hear you, and race back to their burrows inside the 

 wood before you can shut them out with the netting 

 from doing so ; or at all events the larger proportion 

 of them will. What you require is a dark, warm, 

 windy night (ori a wet, cold one the rabbits will be 

 under ground), with the wind blowing towards you 

 from the rabbits as they feed ; you can then erect 

 your net without being seen or heard. Nine to ten 

 o'clock is the best time for this work, as all the 

 rabbits will be out by then ; after ten they will, 

 many of them, begin to seek their burrows again, and 

 in which they will rest till just before daylight. 

 When you know the rabbits are safely shut out, make 

 a noise or light a lantern, and bustle them about and 

 away from the vicinity of the net, which they will at 

 first naturally run to; even a terrier may be em- 

 ployed for this purpose. 



Two or three days before you try this manoeuvre, 

 place upright sticks to support the nets all round the 

 wood, or that part of it you wish to encompass ; the 

 rabbits will not notice the sticks ; then on the night 

 of your attack you can walk rapidly from stick to 



