BY TEE EXE. 117 



brilliantly yellow that they seemed to shine in the 

 sunlight, and on a wall moth-mullein flowered high 

 above the foxgloves. 



It was curious to hear the labouring people say, 

 " There's the guckoo/' when the cuckoo cried. They 

 said he called " guckoo ; " so cuckoo sounded to their 

 ears. There are numbers of birds of prey in the oak 

 woods which everywhere grow on the slopes of the 

 Exmoor hills. The keeper who wishes to destroy a 

 whole brood of jays (which take the eggs of game) 

 waits till the young birds are fledged. He then catches 

 one, or wounds it, and, hiding himself in the bushes, 

 pinches it till the bird cries " scaac, scaac." At the 

 sound the old birds come, and are shot as they approach. 

 The fledglings could, of course, be easily destroyed; 

 the object is to get at the wary old jays, and prevent 

 their returning next year. Now and then a buzzard 

 is shot, and if it be only wounded the gunner conceals 

 himself and pinches it till it calls, when the bird's 

 partner presently appears, and is also killed. Stoats 

 are plentiful. They have their young in burrows, or 

 in holes and crevices among the stones, which are 

 found in quantities in the woods. As any one passes 

 such a heap of stones the young stoats peep from the 

 crevices and cry " yac, yac," like barking, and so 

 betray their presence. Three or four traps are set in 

 a circle round the spot, baited with pieces of rabbit, 

 in which the old stoats are soon caught. The young 

 stoats in a day or two, not being fed, come out of the 

 stones, and are shot, or knocked on the head. The 

 woods are always on the sheltered slopes of the hills, 

 the moors on the summits are bare of trees ; yet it 



