102 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



holes and save digging. But thrust a bar anywhere 

 near a rat's subterranean lair, and probably the rat 

 will bolt, as if possessed, at the first time of asking. 

 Such an effect does probing have on rats that they 

 will fly before the crowbar well knowing that enemies 

 await their appearance. Even with a dog at the 

 hole who has grabbed at the rat more than once, 

 the rat will fly before a shrewd thrust. The art of 

 thrusting is to drive the bar into the hole behind 

 the rat, not blocking the way by which it will bolt. 



Rats seem to have a deep-rooted terror of anything 

 that probes and prods. Perhaps some of them 

 when their holes are disturbed associate the trouble 

 with pitchforks. For hundreds of years rats have 

 lived in com- ricks, and at threshing time when the 

 sheaves have been lifted by pitchforks have bolted 

 furiously. The first thrust of the pitchfork into a 

 protecting sheaf puts out the rats, though well aware 

 of the presence of men and dogs. When the iron 

 bar comes crashing into the burrow, perhaps the rats 

 half expect the soil to be uplifted as if it were a 

 sheaf of corn. 



