88 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
they are!’ just as if we had expected them to be 
anywhere else. There were several hundred bavins 
to be moved, but luckily the surroundings for a 
few yards were open enough to see a stoat. By 
the way, if a wood-pile cannot or must not be 
moved, a good ‘ruxing’ with a long pointed rod 
will induce stoats to steal away. We spurned the 
question of anything other people might have to 
say about the moving of these bavins; we did not 
mean to let off one of these stoats that had assaulted 
our silvery-white pheasant. 
So we set to work to move the bavin-pile, putting 
the little terrier at the far end to prevent premature 
bolting, and our guns, loaded, within easy reach. 
When we had moved about half the bavins we 
began to catch glimpses of lithe, darting forms in 
a great state of excitement. I changed places with 
the terrier, sending her back to help my companion 
keep the stoats forward. I had bowled over five, 
when the remainder of the bavin-pile collapsed, and 
the rest of the stoats broke back into the shifted 
bavins. We had all our work to do over again. 
But we got five more stoats, all full-grown. 1 
missed the last one, either from over-anxiety or 
over-confidence; still, I did miss it, and was 
immensely relieved to see my companion ‘ wipe my 
eye,’ for he had many tables of this sort to turn on 
me. We had got the whole litter—ten of them. 
So was the silvery-white pheasant avenged. 
