VERMIN AND TRAPPING gI 
they still rely upon her to catch them food. So 
when she is dead, and fails to bring them any more 
food, they make a meal of her without any symptom 
of disgust. I had caught a mother stoat in a tunnel 
trap, at the end of a hedgerow, as she was leading 
her bloodthirsty family into one of my woods. 
Some carters were ploughing in the adjoining field, 
and, as is the way of carters while at lunch, one of 
them took a stroll. Coming to where my trap was, 
he saw three large young stoats eating their mother ; 
and so intent were they upon their cannibal feast 
that the man killed them all with a stick, two at the 
same blow. 
Litters of stoats are to be found in disused or 
‘blind’ rabbit-burrows, but bavin-piles or any stacks 
of wood are their favourite lodging. It is easy to 
tell without a dog whether stoats are using a bavin- 
pile or burrow in summer-time ; there will be much 
the same evidence of play as around a spot where 
there are fox cubs, but in miniature, and without 
those strewn remnants of game which as heated 
irons pierce the soul of the gamekeeper. The 
sight of a litter of stoats in full play about a small 
pile of bavins is worth watching : a sort of glorified 
game of hide-and-seek it is, as they dart in and 
out with the speed of lightning and the lithesome- 
ness of vipers. 
A stoat will always bolt before a ferret. The 
slight advantage which an ordinary ferret possesses 
