H4 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



but the noise they make in rising which renders them 

 good protectors of preserves ; it alarms other birds 

 and can be heard t.t some distance. 



When a great mound and hedgerow is grubbed up, 

 the men engaged in the work often anticipate making 

 a considerable bag of the rabbits, whose holes riddle 

 it in every direction, thinking to dig them out even 

 of those innermost chambers whence the ferret has 

 sometimes been unable to dislodge them. But this 

 hope is almost always disappointed ; and when the 

 grub-axe and spade have laid bare the ' buries ■ only 

 recently teeming with life, not a rabbit is found. 

 By some instinct they have discovered the approach 

 of destruction, and as soon as the first few yards of 

 the hedge are levelled secretly depart. After a 

 ' bury ' has been ferreted it is some time before 

 another colony takes possession : this is seemingly 

 from the intense antipathy of the rabbit to the smell 

 of the ferret. Even when shot at and pressed by 

 dogs, a rabbit in his hasty rush will often pass a hole 

 which would have afforded instant shelter because 

 it has been recently ferreted. 



At this season the labourers are busy with 

 'beetle' (pronounced ' bitel') — a huge mallet — and 

 iron wedges, splitting the tough elm-butts and logs 

 for firewood. In old times a cottager here and there 



