Tim: re cornet. You might well be right, but the only use of "cornet" I know from the Scottish Borders is as the name given to the young man chosen annually by the people of Hawick to lead the riding of the marches in the town's Common Riding. By the way, I was wrong above. (Pardon my fading memory.) Smacking rabbits with sticks (or felling "moppies" with "gibbies" in our venacular)as they sped from the last square of standing corn was called a "finishing". Don't recall a rabbit-smacking song, though.