APRIL. 65 



birds'-nesting boys human poachers are now classed 

 among the keeper's worst sorts of vermin, since the 

 craze of " big bags " has so firmly seized our game 

 preservers, that immense numbers of eggs have to be 

 bought for the overstocking of the coverts. But worse 

 even than the human intelligence which the poacher 

 brings to the work of supplying those boxes of eggs 

 to some friendly dealer at a distance who "asks no 

 questions," is the cunning of the stoat and the weasel. 



STOATS' RAVAGES. 



Day and night these little beasts are on the prowl, 

 but especially in the early morning ; and though 

 every entrance to a covert may be guarded by a trap 

 and baited with an egg, they soon seem to learn that 

 it is wiser to leave that egg alone and find others for 

 themselves. Not that they confine themselves to 

 game birds' eggs. No nest is too small or too cun- 

 ningly hidden for them, and, since they can climb 

 like cats, not many upon their regular beats escape. 

 Across the trout stream near one covert a narrow 

 pole has been fixed to prevent the cattle straying 

 through the water from one pasture to another ; and 

 this pole has become a regular highway for vermin 

 that wish to cross the water. For about thirty yards 

 from this pole one bank of the stream is tufted and 

 fringed with bushes growing so densely over the 

 water as to form ideal nesting-sites for many sorts of 

 birds. Every year every bush contains nests, but I 

 doubt whether a single brood of young is reared in 

 any one of them, so carefully are the bushes hunted by 

 the stoats and weasels that come across the stream. 



F 



