JOYS AND SORROWS 299 



snout and head of the creature to be seen : its body 

 remained in one of those shallow surface-runs. 

 With amazing swiftness the snout felt all round, and 

 each dry leaf within reach would be grabbed and 

 drawn under ; in about ten seconds the mole would 

 return. When there were no more leaves within 

 reach of one opening, the mole would thrust through 

 the surface in a fresh place, and continue its leaf- 

 gathering with incredible energy. I have crept 

 beneath a wood-pigeon in a little tree, and at a 

 distance of a few feet have watched it perform its 

 toilet and scratch its head. And I have watched a 

 hare come out of a wood and roll cat-fashion on a 

 dusty cart-way. I saw soil flying from a hole some 

 distance down a ride, crept quietly up, and caught a 

 busy rabbit by a hind-leg. Again, I was standing 

 waiting with my gun for an assistant to walk 

 through a beat for rabbits, when a woodcock flew 

 towards me, and pitched within ten feet. For 

 fully five minutes its eye was fixed on mine. 

 Neither of us dared to breathe naturally. Suddenly 

 it shot itself from the ground over the hazel-stems 

 and was gone ; never have I seen anything fly so 

 fast as that woodcock. Had I tried, I do not think 

 I could have shot it. Curiously enough, just before 

 the woodcock came, a rabbit had crept to the mouth 

 of its burrow, twitched its nostrils, and retreated. 



Why should a keeper be considered a sort of 

 honorary executioner, at the beck and call of every- 



