MS M.1044, fols. 81v–82r

Hunting and Catching the Rabbit
Spaniels were used simply to catch the rabbits or to drive them into their burrows. Several ways were devised to then drive the rabbits from their burrows into the waiting nets or hands of the hunters. The groom dressed in blue in the upper right corner, for instance, drops a ferret into a rabbit hole, causing the rabbits to flee. The ferret had to be muzzled because otherwise it would feast on the rabbit and remain in its burrow. If no ferret was handy, the rabbits could be smoked out by burning a little parchment bag containing a mixture of yellow arsenic, sulfur, and myrrh and then throwing it into the burrow, as shown in the upper left corner. The tactics worked, as one man has two dead rabbits hanging from his stick, while another has tied the hind legs of three more rabbits together and is about to suspend them from his stick.