ii2 THE KEEPERS BOOK 



lie down and squeal through sheer terror before a stoat 

 was within many yards of them, when in an instant the 

 stoat would spring on to the back of its victim, and, 

 with that unerring instinct peculiar to the weasel tribe, 

 seize it behind the ear, when, I am disposed to think, 

 in many cases it sinks its tusks into the spinal cord. 

 Fortunately the stoat is easily trapped, and nothing 

 makes a better bait than one of their own species, their 

 cannibalistic tendencies being a gruesome trait in their 

 character. In the rabbit warren, in the covers, on the 

 grouse moor, or by the hedgerows, the stoat demands 

 the vigilance of the keeper. Some years ago a brood 

 of magpies made their appearance in a strip of planta- 

 tion, where a couple of broods of young pheasants had 

 been frequently seen. Drilling holes in the side of three 

 eggs and inserting a small quantity of strychnine, I had 

 them placed in the strip late at night, in the hope that 

 they would be seen by the magpies in the early morning. 

 On going round, however, the eggs were gone, but there 

 was no trace of the magpies. After a diligent search, I 

 saw something white under some spruce branches, and 

 on lifting them, found the eggs, two of them intact and 

 one broken, while a large stoat, stiff dead, lay beside 

 them. How it had removed the three eggs a distance 

 of 62 yards, I cannot explain. 



The weasel, though smaller in size, very much re- 

 sembles the stoat. It is also very destructive among 

 young game, and, like the stoat, bloodthirsty in its habits. 

 Recently, while travelling over the moor of Tullymet, 



