128 Transactions of tJie [Sess. 



to witness the capture of a Eabbit by this, the most dreaded of all 

 its many enemies. JN^o doubt the Weasel kills many Eabbits by 

 coming upon them unexpectedly while they are lying out in the 

 bushes, or hunts them to death in their burrows, but what we saw 

 proves that the Weasel is more than a match for a full-grown Eabbit, 

 notwithstanding the disparity in speed, even in that longest of all 

 chases, a stern one. 



The river Findhorn, which is hemmed in by immense rocks in 

 its higher reaches, makes up for its temporary confinement as it 

 approaches the mouth. Here it laughs to scorn all attempts to keep 

 it within proper bounds. It makes many beds, but refuses to lie in 

 any of them. The consequence of this is, that the river hardly ever 

 occupies the whole of the channel between the two banks, so that if 

 the stream runs close to the bank on one side, there is usually a 

 tract of shingle intervening between the river and the bank on the 

 opposite side. It was such a place where we witnessed the following. 



One forenoon, during the last week of August, we happened to be 

 fishing near the mouth of the river, when we heard from the opposite 

 side the cry of what seemed to be a Eabbit in distress. On looking in 

 the direction from which the cry proceeded, we observed a Eabbit 

 coming out from the bushes on the opposite bank and running in a 

 zigzag fashion among the stones on the beach, crying piteously all the 

 while. We at first thought that a Weasel had hold of it, but this was 

 not the case, for, as it turned out, what we saw was only the first act of 

 the tragedy. The Eabbit had run a short distance only, when there 

 issued from the bushes in full pursuit a Weasel, which, so to speak, 

 flitted in and out among the stones so quickly that it was difiicult to 

 keep it in view. As the Eabbit was almost jDowerless through ex- 

 treme terror, and as the Weasel kept a straight line while the Eabbit 

 ran from side to side, it was not long ere the pair came to close 

 quarters, at the very edge of the river, and where the bank sloped 

 gradually towards the stream. As is usually the case, the Weasel 

 took hold of the Eabbit behind the ears, and proceeded to viciously 

 bite its victim, until such time as a wound large enough to enable it 

 to suck the blood was made. For a few minutes there was a struggle 

 at the water's edge, the Eabbit still crying in a very piteous manner, 

 and making frantic efi'orts to break loose from its fierce little foe, but 

 to no purpose. When, however, we thought all was over, the Eabbit, 

 in making a last effort to escape, rolled down the bank into the river, 

 carrying the Weasel with it. The Eabbit then struck out boldly into 

 the stream, and swam up the river in a slanting direction. The 

 Weasel, on finding itself in the water, at once let go its hold, and 

 having reached the shore did not attempt to follow the Eabbit, but 

 got to the top of the bank and ran quickly backwards and forwards 

 opposite the place where the Eabbit had entered the river. This 

 appeared to be done for the purpose of keeping itself in the Eabbit's 



