208 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



of an excuse to stray to fresh woods. The nutter who 

 would avoid the keeper should avoid paths, and lie 

 very low and still when the keeper comes his way. 

 This lesson in woodcraft had been mastered so 

 thoroughly by one young nutter of our acquaintance 

 that when a keeper chanced to pass along the ride 

 near which he was picking, he still lay low when the 

 keeper's words were almost in his ear : " Where be ye? 

 Ah, I sees ye. Come out on it, then ! " And he was 

 duly rewarded by the knowledge that these remarks 

 were merely an exhortation to pheasants to feed. 



Dormice are the chief of all lovers of hazel-nuts. 

 They are found very often at work by human nutters ; 

 and their nest is seen sheltered by hazel leaves 

 a neat round structure, built of dry grass, beautifully 

 woven. One autumn we came upon a nest contain- 

 ing six young dormice, about half-grown and ready 

 to run, and three of them, wonderful to relate, were 

 wholly white. Autumnal litters are common, and, 

 as though by a beautiful piece of foresight on the 

 part of Nature, the favourite nut food is most abund- 

 ant just when the little mice are ready to give up a 

 milk diet. Though called " the mouse of the hazel," 

 he seems as partial to acorns as to hazel-nuts, 

 and he is insectivorous, and feeds heartily on nut- 

 weevil grubs. With November he will be as fat 

 as nuts can make him, and before the month is out 

 he will have fallen into his long winter trance. The 

 little reddish brown harvest-mouse seems to have 

 almost disappeared in the north of Hampshire and 



