4 The Stoat and its ways. 
footpath plank, or merely a tree reaching from bank to bank, 
which the wind has blown down. No sooner is the stoat safely 
across, and ‘ working down’ the fresh bank, than it wants to be 
back again. Thus it comes about that a stoat never neglects to 
cross a stream whenever means are available.” The clever 
trapper takes full advantage of this peculiarity, and many stoats 
die in passage tunnels. ‘The trap is simply placed in a tunnel, 
nailed to a rough larch tree laid across the stream from bank to 
bank, with a large furze or whin bush tied on the top of the 
tunnel to force the animal to use it. If the bushing be omitted, 
it may jump over, or run along the top of the tunnel, and so 
escape the trap. 
A parish may abound in stoats, and yet none may be seen by 
the natives: their nests and food-stores may be plentiful, and yet 
no one may suspect their presence. So much is this the case, that 
only a few gamekeepers are keen enough to detect the stoat’s 
home—unless they chance to see it run in—by the trail, or by the 
feathers and fur which so frequently cling round the entrance. 
No one knew this better than the late John Cordeaux, our first 
President. He loved to point out all such things to the fairly 
observant, and train his young friends in exact woodcraft. He 
once said to me, “ All kinds of places are used for breeding-homes, 
store-houses, or ‘ hunting-boxes’ by stoats. Nothing comes 
amiss to them, rabbit or rat burrows, hollow trees, dry-built stone 
walls, the larger birds’ nests—a magpie’s by preference—or a 
squirrel’s drey.”” Forty years ago I remember a stoat’s home and 
hoard being discovered under a heap of large stones, shot out of a 
cart by the wayside, ready to be broken by old men into road 
metal. Their ancient tongues wagged merrily over their find, to 
the discomfiture of the keeper who passed the spot several times 
every day of his hfe. 
When found the female stoat’s nest is always warmly lined 
and securely cosy: it seems to be carefully hidden from the male. ° 
I have never heard of the dog stoat being discovered with the 
mother or family, or assisting to hunt for them. A wandering 
stoat may occasionally visit the entrance of the burrow, but 
unless he is bent on mischief he never pushes his enquiries further, 
or the infuriated female drives him off. A male may be very 
rarely trapped at the entrance of “an earth,” but has never been 
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