1883-84-] Edinbjirgh Naturalists' Field Club. 131 



group — and a most bold, cruel, bloodthirsty, ill-conditioned, and 

 withal inquisitive family they are. They do not live in the odour 

 of sanctity at all, but they do possess an odour of a very different 

 nature, and that in a considerable degree. The members of the 

 Weasel family in this country consist of the Weasel, the Stoat, the 

 Polecat, the Marten, and the Pine Marten. There is also the 

 Ferret, but that species of AVeasel can be looked on in this country 

 as a domestic animal only. The Pine Marten is now exceedingly 

 rare, though one may still occasionally be met with in the larger Pine 

 woods of the north of Scotland. The common Marten, as it was 

 formerly called, is not quite so rare, and I read recently of two 

 specimens being shot ; and I saw a large one in the flesh very lately 

 in the shop of Mr Small, bird-stuifer, George Street. The Polecat, 

 an animal very like a large-sized, dark-coloured Ferret, is still far 

 from extinct ; but as it inhabits wild rocky woods, it is not often 

 seen, and I have only met with it twice in my life. When abundant, 

 in the earlier portion of this century, it was the terror and abhorrence 

 of henwives, and of all persons who kept poultry. By far the most 

 common of the Weasel tribe is the common Weasel. This active 

 little creature is much persecuted by gamekeepers, but it may well be 

 called the friend of the farmer, as, when it takes up its abode in a 

 barnyard, it very soon clears the stacks of rats and mice. I confess 

 to have been very inconsistent in my treatment of the Weasel, as I 

 invariably preserved it about the farm-offices, and as invariably shot 

 it when, gun in hand, I met with it in the fields. The Weasel, like 

 all its congeners, is so active and vigilant, that its name has given 

 rise to the proverb, " Catch a Weasel asleep ! " I had once, however, 

 an opportunity of making a poor pun very much at the expense of 

 an individual Weasel. I was wallving on the public road, whilst 

 a friend who bore the not altogether uncommon name of Brown 

 happened to be some fifty yards in advance of me. A Weasel 

 chanced to run across the road between us, but, catching sight of 

 Brown, it suddenly stopped and gazed upon him so intently, that it 

 allowed me to slip up and stamp my foot upon it. " If I have not 

 caught you asleep," I said, " I have at least surprised you in a brown 

 study ! " 



But it is the Stoat, and not the Weasel, that is the subject of this 

 paper. The chief apparent difference, at least in summer, between 

 the Stoat and the Weasel, is that of size. The Stoat, I should say, 

 is fully double the weight and bulk of the Weasel, though in length 

 it only exceeds it by some four inches. In winter, however — at least 

 in severe winters — a very striking difference takes place, as the 

 Weasel retains its summer coat of reddish-brown, while that of the 

 Stoat becomes pure white, the tip of the tail only excepted, which 

 remains jet-black. No prettier little animal exists in Britain than 

 the Stoat, when clothed in its wintry habit of snowy white, con- 



