This is a narrow spade of specially stout make; the blade is hollow and resembles an exaggerated gouge, and the advantage is that in digging out a rabbit the tool is very apt to catch under a root, when an ordinary spade may bend and become useless.  The ‘navigator’ will stand anything, and being narrow is also more handy.  All these implements Little John has prepared by the dim light of a horn lantern in the shed at the back of his cottage.  A mug of ale while we get our guns greatly cheers him, and unlooses his tongue.

All the way to Redcote he impresses on us the absolute necessity of silence while ferreting, and congratulates us on having a nearly still day.  He is a little doubtful about Orion’s spaniel and whether it will keep quiet or not.

When we reach the double-mound, his talk entirely ceases:  he is as silent and as rugged as a pollard oak.  By the top of the mound the sack of nets is thrown down on the sward and opened.  As there are more holes on the other side of the hedge Orion goes over with Little John, and I proceed to set up the nets on mine.

I found some difficulty in getting at the bank, the bushes being so thick, and had to use the billhook and chop a way in:  I heard Little John growling about this in a whisper to Orion.  Very often before going with the ferrets, people send a man or two a few hours previously to chop and clear the bushes.  The effect is that the rabbits will not bolt freely.  They hear the men chopping, and the vibration of the earth as they clumsily climb over the banks, and will not come out till absolutely forced.  If it is done at all, it should be done a week beforehand.  That was why Little John grumbled at my chopping though he knew it was necessary.

To set up a rabbit net you must arrange it so that it covers the whole of the mouth of the hole, for if there is any opening between it and the bank the rabbit will slip through.  He will not face the net unless obliged to.  Along the upper part, if the bank is steep, so that the net will not lie on it of itself, two or three little twigs should be thrust through the meshes into the earth to suspend it.

These twigs should be no larger than are used by birds in constructing their nests; just strong enough to hold the net in place and no more.  On the other hand, care must be taken that no stout projecting root catches a corner of the net, else it will not draw up properly and the rabbit will escape.

Little John, not satisfied with my assurance that I had netted all the holes my side, now came over—­crawling on hands and knees that he might not jar the bank—­to examine for himself.  His practised eye detected two holes that I had missed:  one on the top of the mound much overhung by dead grass, and one under a stole.  These he attended to.  He then crawled up on the mound two or three yards below the end of the bury, and with his own hands stretched a larger net right across the top of the bank, so that if a rabbit did escape he would run into this.  To be still more sure he stretched another similar net across the whole width of the mound at the other end of the bury.