The Scottish Naturalist. 103 



pack of foxhounds hunt the Fox, and can boast of a much larger 

 percentage of kills. 



The Stoat is, undeniably, an enemy to game ; and is, therefore, 

 very naturally an object of hatred to the gamekeeper. It would be 

 unreasonable, I think, to blame the keeper for waging war against an 

 animal which he looks upon as a dangerous enemy to the game which 

 it is his duty to protect. Admitting, however, that the Stoat is a 

 poacher, and destructive to game, is there not good reason for believ- 

 ing: that the Rat is as bad ? Would not a few stoats be a less evil 

 than legions of rats infesting every brook and every hedgerow, and 

 doubtless robbing many a partridge or pheasant's nest ? When we 

 consider the large number of rats that two or three stoats would kill 

 in the course of the year, it certainly seems as if it would pay best to 

 leave the Stoat alone. Undoubtedly the Rat is capable of atrocities 

 which the Stoat would never think of. For example, at a farm-stead- 

 ing not far from Terregles, I heard of their killing and devouring two 

 young pigs ; and this was not all. They afterwards killed a calf. At 

 this rate it is not unlikely that before long they will kill a cow, and 

 they may not stop there. They have frequently been known to attack 

 men. If the stoat is to be saved from extermination there is no time 

 to be lost, as he is already becoming a very scarce animal, and 

 probably the next four or five years will see the last of him in the 

 district around Terregles. 



The Common Weasel {Mustela vulgaris) is still frequently to be 

 seen, but I doubt if he is such a formidable enemy to the Rat as the 

 Stoat. He is a very useful little animal, however, and should be 

 protected by law. 



The Hedgehog (Eriuaceus europccus) is also sadly in want of some 

 such protection. He is fast being exterminated, and will probably 

 soon be extinct, although only a few years ago so common that one 

 could scarcely take a walk in the fields on a summer evening without 

 seeing several usefully employed hunting for slugs in the dewy grass. 

 As slugs form the chief food of the Hedgehog, it is obvious that he 

 must do an immense amount of good in that way, probably far more 

 than we realise. Now that the black-headed gulls have become so 

 scarce hereabouts, I do not know of any other check to the increase 

 of slugs ; and everyone who has anything to do with gardening knows 

 what damage slugs can do. Why do not those who have walled 

 gardens keep a few tame hedgehogs ? I don't know whether slugs 

 are more numerous now than they used to be, but certainly they are 

 now a very serious pest, and will increase where there is no check 

 upon them. Two years ago I saw a field of newly brairded oats so 

 covered with small grey or white slugs that there must have been on 

 -an average at least thirty or forty to the square yard, and they very 

 nearly destroyed the crop altogether. This state of things may not be 



