190 PARTRIDGES 



one may well be tolerated should it occur. 

 It would be a shame wittingly to hasten 

 their already inevitable extinction, though, 

 were they plentiful, they would rank only 

 second to the rat as agents to destruction. 

 We dismiss this case, then, as 'Charge 

 not pressed,' the interests of science bid- 

 ding us stay our hands, even though it 

 may involve some slight mischief among 

 our game. 



The stoat can claim no such immunity, 

 for constant persecution and he is one 

 of the easiest animals to trap never 

 seems to reduce his numbers below the 

 normal ; relax the strain for a single year 

 and stoats literally swarm on the ground. 

 To this graceful and graceless murderer 

 for the stoat kills for sheer love of 

 slaughter nothing in the nature of game 

 comes amiss, birds old and young, chicks 

 and eggs, all being alike destroyed. 

 Some service the stoat certainly does 

 render to mankind by preying on the 

 smaller rodents, but these virtuous deeds 

 weigh but light in the balance against 



