176 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



place where a litter had been lodging for weeks within 

 a few yards of a man who had been making hurdles 

 day after day, and his report was that he had not 

 seen " ne'er a sign of a stoo-at." The family had 

 gone when we found their lodging, and it was evident 

 that the old stoat had moved her young ones at night 

 just before they were old enough to proclaim their 

 presence by coming out from their wood-pile to play. 



The keeper's eyes are always open for stoats. They 

 are fond of prying about the base of a gate-post, 

 where a trap is often set to good purpose. 



Then they deli S ht in friskin g along the 

 middle of a ride, especially after rain. 

 There the keeper sets a tunnel trap, covering it with 

 bundles of brushwood ; and every stoat that comes 

 along will explore so likely a lurking-place for a 

 rabbit, and each naturally enters by the fatal passage. 

 Those heaps of corn-rakings placed in the woods 

 for pheasants form a favourite stoat -haunt. Here 

 they find a warm, dry lair, and good hunting, for the 

 corn attracts a crowd of small birds. Chancing once 

 to right an overturned sheep -trough which had been 

 lying inverted for some weeks, we disturbed the 

 peace of a couple of stoats which had made the trough 

 their home. They were gone like flashes of lightning, 

 and though we overturned the trough again for their 

 benefit, they had the good sense not to be caught 

 napping a second time. 



