OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 295 



specimens in a museum, for minute 

 'hoppers' clean up all the flesh, leaving 

 only skins and bones. Stoats and weasels 

 occupy the lower rows of the collection, 

 mere shrivelled remnants to the casual 

 observer, yet serving to recall the story 

 of their departure from this life to their 

 quondam pursuer. This family of young 

 stoats met their death while feasting on 

 the body of their lately defunct mother ; 

 that old fellow next door was surprised 

 while engaged in deluding an unwary 

 blackbird by turning somersaults down 

 a bank, a well-directed shot bringing the 

 performance to a close. Above hang 

 lines of crows, magpies, jackdaws, and 

 sparrow-hawks, with a single kestrel who 

 developed an unhappy taste for young 

 pheasants in the rearing field, and was 

 reluctantly condemned, the * wind-hovers/ 

 as a rule, having earned a clean bill of 

 health. A row of cats' heads, staring 

 hideously down on the visitor, complete 

 the tale of trophies. Other cats there 

 were, but they do not figure here, nor 



