240 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



of the day has its effect on scent ; in midsummer the 

 woods may have no perfume in particular at midday, 

 but are filled with sweet smells in the evening. Every 

 one knows how a warm autumnal shower brings out 

 the savour of dead leaves and the smell of earth. 



To the fox, as to the stoat, the sense of smelling is 

 the most important of all. With his nose the fox 

 discovers nearly all his food. If the sitting game-bird 

 has flown to her nest, and herself gives off the least per- 

 ceptible scent, the fox easily finds her by that .strong 

 scent given off by chipping eggs. By scent he picks 

 up the young leverets, after quartering the ground 

 to gather the greatest advantage of the wind. He 

 scents young rabbits in the stop when a foot beneath 

 the surface of the earth, and when he starts digging 

 them out he goes directly to their nest. So a good 

 ratting terrier will point through a couple of feet of 

 soil to the exact spot where a rat is lying. We have 

 sometimes thought that an invention to magnify 

 scents would prove of great benefit to the gamekeeper. 

 But there might be fatal effects if a keeper, scent- 

 improver on nose, came suddenly on that mushroom 

 of the fetid odour commonly known as the Stinkhorn. 



One of the many thorns that pierce the keeper's side 

 is driven home at the time of the cutting of the under- 

 wood. Once in every span of ten or twelve years this 

 time must come. Now and again the felling of part of 

 a covert before shooting improves matters from a 



