82 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



Picking up my apparatus, I walked away in 

 the direction of home, filled with annoyed con- 

 tempt for the marksmanship of citizen soldiers. 

 I had not retreated forty yards before a rabbit 

 began to scream amain outside the burrow I 

 had just left. Returning to pick up what cir- 

 cumstances naturally suggested would be the victim 

 of a stray bullet, I beheld a three-parts-grown 

 rabbit kicking its way convulsively out of a 

 little forest of stinging-nettles, half of which 

 grew on one side and half on the other of a rough 

 fir slat fence dividing the rifle range from the 

 field in which I stood. 



When almost in the act of stooping to pick 

 the unfortunate animal up, I was astonished to 

 discover that it had a stoat holding viciously 

 on to the back of its neck. I involuntarily 

 raised my foot with the intention of wreaking 

 vengeance on the assassin, when it flashed across 

 my mind that as it was manifestly too late to 

 save the rabbit, why not try to photograph the 

 pair ? Upon espying me so close, the stoat's 

 malignant little eyes fairly blazed, but instead 

 of releasing his hold, as I had expected, and 

 beating a hasty retreat, he simply turned the 

 head of his victim with the resolute determination 

 of a capable rider on a restive steed, and the 

 next struggle carried both beneath the fence and 

 on to the range beyond. 



