VERMIN AND TRAPPING 91 



they still rely upon her to catch them food. So 

 when she is dead, and fails to bring them any more 

 food, they make a meal of her without any symptom 

 of disgust. I had caught a mother stoat in a tunnel 

 trap, at the end of a hedgerow, as she was leading 

 her bloodthirsty family into one of my woods. 

 Some carters were ploughing in the adjoining field, 

 and, as is the way of carters while at lunch, one of 

 them took a stroll. Coming to where my trap was, 

 he saw three large young stoats eating their mother ; 

 and so intent were they upon their cannibal feast 

 that the man killed them all with a stick, two at the 

 same blow. 



Litters of stoats are to be found in disused or 

 ' blind ' rabbit-burrows, but bavin-piles or any stacks 

 of wood are their favourite lodging. It is easy to 

 tell without a dog whether stoats are using a bavin- 

 pile or burrow in summer-time ; there will be much 

 the same evidence of play as around a spot where 

 there are fox cubs, but in miniature, and without 

 those strewn remnants of game which as heated 

 irons pierce the soul of the gamekeeper. The 

 sight of a litter of stoats in full play about a small 

 pile of bavins is worth watching : a sort of glorified 

 game of hide-and-seek it is, as they dart in and 

 out with the speed of lightning and the lithesome- 

 ness of vipers. 



A stoat will always bolt before a ferret. The 

 slight advantage which an ordinary ferret possesses 



