202 The Amatetir Poacher 



the bushes ; his hat was off ; his weather-beaten face 

 bleeding from a briar, but he could not feel the 

 scratch so anxious was he that nothing should escape. 

 I pulled another net from my pocket, and spread it 

 roughly over the hole ; then more slowly took the 

 rabbit from the other net. 



You should never hold a rabbit up till you have 

 got fast hold of his hind legs ; he will so twist and 

 work himself as to get free from any other grasp. 

 But when held by the hind legs and lifted from the 

 ground he can do nothing. I now returned to my 

 buttress of bushes and waited. The rabbits did not 

 bolt my side again for awhile. Every now and then 

 I saw, or heard, Orion or Little John leap into their 

 ditch, and well knew what it meant before the dead 

 rabbit was cast out to fall with a helpless thud upon 

 the sward. 



Once I saw a rabbit's head at the mouth of a hole, 

 and momentarily expected him to dart forth driven 

 by the same panic fear. But either the ferret passed, 

 or there was another side-tunnel — the rabbit went back. 

 Some few minutes afterwards Little John exclaimed : 

 ' Look out, you : ferret's out 1 ' One of the ferrets 

 had come out of a hole and was aimlessly— as it 

 appeared — roaming along the bank. 



As he came nearest my side, I got quietly into the 



