VERMIN in 



that the gamekeeper has good reason to be afraid of. 

 He is a merciless tyrant, a meaningless murderer, shed- 

 ding blood from mere wantonness. Both ground and 

 winged game fall victims to his bloodthirstiness. Even 

 wood-pigeons are not exempt from his rapacity, as I 

 have seen one in a pigeon's nest 10 ft. from the ground, 

 and watched him throw the young birds over the nest 

 and carry them off. The climbing capacity of the stoat 

 can scarcely be credited : in a pole-trap 7 or 8 ft. from 

 the ground, on the moor at Castle Menzies, in Perth- 

 shire, I witnesseda number of stoats captured. Whether 

 they had scented the blood of birds that had been 

 caught, or by what motive they were impelled to climb 

 the pole, I cannot say, but the fact remains that the 

 stoats climbed that pole and were secured in the trap 

 at the top of it. 



It is no use a keeper thinking that he has vermin 

 trapped down on his estate, as the stoat is ubiquitous. 

 Some years ago I collected five hundred stoats and 

 weasels to transport to New Zealand, in order to cope 

 with the rabbit plague. There were no rabbits and no 

 stoats there till man introduced some rabbits, and with 

 the most ruinous results. It was therefore found 

 necessary to introduce the natural enemy of the rabbit, 

 hence the transportation of stoats and weasels. Before 

 they had been long in the colony, it was discovered that 

 stoats had travelled a distance of ninety miles. Their 

 scenting power enables them to track their prey like a 

 beagle, and I have seen both rabbits and young hares 



