152 ANIMALS USED BY THE SHOOTER. 



FERRETS USED IN AID OF THE GUN. 



The ferret is used for taking rabbits either with the aid of 

 nets placed at the mouths of their holes, or by shooting them 

 as they come out. The latter is the method which more 

 particularly brings them under our notice in the present 

 book. 



The FERRET (the two varieties of which are delineated in 

 the accompanying engravings) originally came from Africa, 

 through Spain, from which latter country the whole of 

 Europe has been supplied. In length it is about fourteen 

 inches, the ears are round, eyes red and fiery, colour 

 pale yellowish white. The dark-coloured variety is crossed 

 with the polecat, and is not a pure bred animal. These cross- 

 bred ferrets are supposed by some to be more hardy than the 

 white, but there is no such difference in reality between 

 them, and for some generations they are wild and unmanage- 

 able. In choosing ferrets for rabbiting, the largest should 

 be taken in preference, especially for rocky ground, but in 

 some soils where there are no chasms likely to occur in the 

 earth, a small ferret will answer well enough. 



REARING AND FEEDING. 



The hutches in which ferrets are kept should be placed in 

 a dry room well protected from the weather. The floor of 

 the hutch must be kept very clean, and for this purpose a 

 false wire bottom answers well, having in a drawer below it 

 sawdust or chaff, which will absorb the moisture, and can be 

 removed with it every day. By adopting this plan, ferrets 

 may be kept comparatively sweet, and even without the wire, 

 by changing the sawdust, or chaff daily, a sufficiently whole- 

 some result may be produced. The retiring box, or sleeping 

 place, should be small and without any false bottom, as the 

 ferrets, unless they are mismanaged, will never dirty it : it 

 should be freely supplied with clean hay and wool, as they like 

 to be warm, but the box should be ventilated in proportion. A 

 trustworthy correspondent of The Field (High Elms), thus 

 describes the hutch used by him : " The box itself should 



