88 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



they are !' just as if we had expected them to be 

 anywhere else. There were several hundred bavins 

 to be moved, but luckily the surroundings for a 

 few yards were open enough to see a stoat. By 

 the way, if a wood-pile cannot or must not be 

 moved, a good * ruxing ' with a long pointed rod 

 will induce stoats to steal away. We spurned the 

 question of anything other people might have to 

 say about the moving of these bavins ; we did not 

 mean to let off one of these stoats that had assaulted 

 our silvery-white pheasant. 



So we set to work to move the bavin-pile, putting 

 the little terrier at the far end to prevent premature 

 bolting, and our guns, loaded, within easy reach. 

 When we had moved about half the bavins we 

 began to catch glimpses of lithe, darting forms in 

 a great state of excitement. I changed places with 

 the terrier, sending her back to help my companion 

 keep the stoats forward. I had bowled over five, 

 when the remainder of the bavin-pile collapsed, and 

 the rest of the stoats broke back into the shifted 

 bavins. We had all our work to do over again. 

 But we got five more stoats, all full-grown. I 

 missed the last one, either from over-anxiety or 

 over-confidence ; still, I did miss it, and was 

 immensely relieved to see my companion ' wipe my 

 eye/ for he had many tables of this sort to turn on 

 me. We had got the whole litter ten of them. 

 So was the silvery-white pheasant avenged. 



