AN OUTLINE OF THE BRITISH MUSTELAD^E. 19 



— changing to white in the winter o*f northern regions: — tip of 

 the tail, which is bushy, invariably black. Length of body ten 

 inches, — of tail, five or six. Number of young not exactly 

 known. Much more common than the preceding species. 



Remarks, — The stoat subsists principally upon eggs, poultry 

 and other descriptions of bird, rats, and putrid animal substances. 

 It has been known to track a young hare by the scent with all 

 the accuracy of the harrier.* The extent of its depredations in 

 the rabbit-warren will be shewn by the following fact. One 

 morning, in the early spring of 1832, while sitting at breakfast, 

 at Packwood House, the residence of the late Col. Fetherston, I 

 observed a large and apparently female stoat, rapidly vaulting, 

 with arched back and bushy tail, through the tall herbage at the 

 head of the pool which terminates the lawn. She carried some- 

 thing in her mouth, which I soon discovered to be a young 

 rabbit. After having disappeared for a few minutes and de- 

 posited her burthen, the stoat retraced her steps with increased 

 agility across the lawn ; descended a steep bank into the neigh- 

 bouring meadow, and plunged into a rabbit-burrow at the foot 

 of an old oak which grew there. From this, she soon returned 

 with another of the defenceless inmates in her mouth. Four 

 times did the little animal renew her visit to the meadow with 

 the same result. Thinking it high time, for the sake of his 

 rabbits, to stop these predatory incursions, one of the members 

 of the family now took up his gun, and stationed himself behind 

 the oak, but the prey was gone ; and the sagacious creature 

 returned no more to the scene of her depredations. All our 

 endeavours to discover the hiding-place of the stoat, with a view 

 of obtaining possession, or at least ascertaining the number, 

 of the young, for which she had, doubtless, been thus adven- 

 turously and actively catering, were unsuccessful. 



3. Vulgaris, — Common Weasel, — la Belette, F., — Donnola, 

 It., — Comadreja, Sp., — das gemeine Wiesel, G. Spec. Char. 

 Colour yellowish or tawny-brown, above ; white or yellowish- 

 white, beneath. A brown spot near the angle of the mouth. 

 Length of body six or seven inches; — of the tail, which is neither 

 bushy nor tipt with black, two inches. Number of young, 

 five or six. Its skin and excrements exhale an intolerable odour. 



Remarks. — This animal, by far the smallest of the British 

 weasels, and frequently named by ignorant observers, the stoat, 

 subsists on the same food as the preceding species. It is very 

 active, and uncommonly courageous for its size. I have fre- 

 quently experienced great difficulty in driving the little creature 

 from any article of prey, of which it has been my object to obtain 

 possession. A few weeks ago, a professional gentleman, of 

 Tamworth, in the vicinity of which the weasel is very common, 

 observed an animal, of this species, crossing the road before him, 



* See Fleming's History of British Animals, vol. i. p. 14. 



