294 SHORT STALKS 



go out Oil a stiil day. Here we heard scarcely a whisper 

 ill the trees tlie whole time. But in another sense these 

 woods are unusuallv "' noisv," from sticks and stones, and 

 crisp dry leaves which strew the ground. If you imitate 

 the deer and lie low, you may hear every leaf that falls 

 within thirty yards, and a tom-tit alighting on a twig 

 makes quite a commotion. You realise how difficult it 

 would be for a man to approach within shooting distance 

 without detection, unless he should come up Ijehind a 

 ridge. " Smoke " repeatedly showed that he could hear 

 an approaching footstep long before I could, and a deer's 

 sense of hearing is doubtless fully as acute as a dog's. 



It must not be supposed that the deer are as plentiful 

 here as in a Scotch forest ; there are comparatively few. 

 Tracks there are in plenty, but it does not do to 

 oet much excited over tracks. One deer makes a oood 

 many in the course of a night. I attach more importance 

 to the frequency of "beds" and to trees which have 

 been punished by the horns of stags. Both birds and 

 beasts of l»rcy doubtless take toll of the fawns. There 

 is a laroe black eaole whose table - like nests built on 

 the flat tops of fir - trees, were very conspicuous from 

 above. Then there is a Rinaller kind, of a lighter 

 colour, which builds in great numbers in the clifl:s. 

 There are also many small beasts of prey. I secured a 

 curious little polecat, but that was on the }ilaiiis. His 

 body is mottled yellow and l)rowii like a tabby cat. He 

 has a well-defined white band across his forehead, and 

 his furry ears, which he carries upright like those of a 

 marmoset monkey, are also white. I learn from Sir AV. 

 H. Flower that it is the "marbled polecat." I saw 



