236 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



winged insects, and to lay in turn the eggs which cause 

 the pretty vermilion-spotted galls. So the wheel of 

 life turns again and would turn for ever if unspoked 

 by the pheasant's beak. 



In mid-November rabbits are at their fattest. Grass 

 has been green, sweet, lush, and growing ; under the 



autumn sun, winter oats and wheat have 

 Rabbits s P run g mcnes high, and rabbits have been 



enjoying rare feasts. The stoats, in turn, 

 have found benefit in the autumn. It is on full- 

 grown rabbits that they now depend chiefly for food. 

 No longer can they feed on young birds ; nor are 

 small rabbits often to be met. Rats show fight when 

 attacked, and stoats prefer to tackle game without 

 power of resistance. Full-grown hares have too much 

 staying power to be hunted down, and they are too 

 fond of making for the open fields to be worth hunting. 

 There are mice and field -voles, but the fat rabbits of 

 the woods are the most obvious of possible meals. No 

 hunt is more determined, ferocious, or relentless than 

 when a stoat hounds a big rabbit to its death. 



v v * 



By scent alone the stoat runs down the rabbit chosen 

 for its dinner. No matter how devious the rabbit's 

 course, or how many other rabbits cross the trail, the 

 one line of scent is followed to the end, and sooner or 

 later the death-scream of the rabbit is inevitable. We 



