610 Utility of the Weasel in destroying Mice, 



very much troubled about the vermin (mice) in my wheat 

 ricks : I had tried ferrets, but I could not lessen their num- 

 bers apparently. As I was one day looking round my rick- 

 yard I saw, on the roof of a wheat-rick, a weasel, seemingly 

 intent upon watching for its prey : he suddenly entered a hole 

 in the thatch, and brought out a mouse (nearly full-grown), 

 and was immediately followed by another [weasel] carrying 

 a similar burden. They entered another hole in the rick, and 

 I thought I had finally lost all traces of them ; but they soon 

 found their way through the rick, and came out at the bottom, 

 each bearing its burden. They crossed the rick-yard, and 

 entered a hole in a bank which led under an ash tree. In 

 about five minutes, they returned from their retreat in the 

 bank, without their loads ; crossed the yard, and entered the 

 same rick again; when one of them stationed itself by the 

 hole, as before, while the other, as I suppose, ferreted out the 

 mice. On the approach of the latter to the hole, in the hope 

 of making its escape, the weasel again darted into the hole, 

 and very shortly, both the weasels returned, each bearing a 

 mouse, as before, which they conveyed to their retreat under 

 the ash tree ; and this they repeated four times in about one 

 hour and a half: thus destroying eight mice. 



" I suspected that their nest was under the ash tree, and 

 in this I was not deceived ; for I soon found that they brought 

 out four young ones, and introduced them into the wheat' 

 ricks ; and so greatly had they thinned the destructive mice, 

 that, when the ricks were carried to the threshing floor, 

 scarcely a mouse was to be found. After some months, the 

 young weasels disappeared, and the old pair were left undis- 

 puted masters of the domain. This favourite pair continued 

 for three years ; each year producing a young brood, which 

 disappeared the following spring. At length, one of my 

 favourite mousers was caught in a rat-trap, and the other soon 

 afterwards disappeared." May we not infer from the cir- 

 cumstances related, that the weasel might be tamed, and 

 made as useful in driving away and destroying mice, as the 

 ferret is in driving away rats ? — W. H. White. Old Kent 

 Road, Jan. 10. 1835. 



[It is noticeable, in the two preceding anecdotes, that two 

 kindred species of carnivorous animals were preying on two 

 kindred species of rodent ones.] 



A Cat with Eyes of different Colours. — At the house of Mr. 

 Handforth, broker, No. 10. Borough Road, South wark, is a 

 white cat, whose left eye is of a light green, while her right 

 is of a beautiful bright blue. — James Fennell. Southwark. 



White Cats, I have observed, without exception, to sleep 



