230 The Amateur Poacher 



dead bees were afterwards shaken out and buried ; but 

 upon moving the earth with a spade some of them 

 would crawl out, even after two or three days. 



Sulphur fumes were likewise used for compelling 

 rabbits to bolt from their buries without a ferret. I 

 tried an experiment in a bury once with a mixture the 

 chief component of which was gunpowder, so managed 

 as to burn slowly and give a great smoke. The rab- 

 bits did, indeed, just hop out and hop in again ; but it 

 is a most clumsy expedient, because the fire must be 

 lit on the windward side, and the rabbits will only 

 come out to leeward. The smoke hangs, and does 

 not penetrate into half the tunnels ; or else it blows 

 through quickly, when you must stop half the holes 

 with a spade. It is a wretched substitute for a ferret. 



When cock-fighting was common the bellicose 

 inclinations of the cock-pheasants were sometimes 

 excited to their destruction. A game-cock was first 

 armed with the sharp spur made from the best razors, 

 and then put down near where a pheasant-cock had 

 been observed to crow. The pheasant-cock is so 

 thoroughly game that he will not allow any rival 

 crowing in his locality, and the two quickly met in 

 battle. Like a keen poniard the game-cock's spur 

 either slew the pheasant outright or got fixed in the 

 pheasant's feathers, when he was captured. 



