134 Transactions of the [Sess. 



thought I was seeing the last of it, when the unfortunate wretch had 

 the strange mishap to run right into the very trap in which it had 

 originally been caught. 



As showing the indifference of Stoats to the presence of man, I 

 shall give an instance. I was, with a friend, shooting Rabbits, which 

 were being bolted from their burrows in a steep bank by the aid of 

 Ferrets. I had wounded a Rabbit, which got into a hole, and a 

 labourer Avith pick and spade set to work to dig it out. Many shots 

 were fired, people shouted, and dogs barked, when presently we heard 

 the cry of a Rabbit in distress, not a yard from the spot where the 

 man was driving his pick. Presently the Rabbit rolled out of the 

 hole, and I shot it, when, to my surprise, I discovered the cause of 

 its cry. It was firmly grasped by a Stoat, and the two creatures were 

 killed by the same shot. Thus, in spite of guns, men, and dogs, and the 

 noise of a pick within a yard of it, the reckless Stoat had set to work 

 to destroy the wounded Rabbit, and allowed itself to be dragged out 

 into daylight before us all. The following is a still stronger instance 

 of this little creature's almost contemptu,ous indifference to man. 

 One of my servants saw a Stoat kill a half-tame black Rabbit on the 

 lawn, a few yards from the drawing-room windows. He rushed 

 after the brute, in the hope of killing it. In the middle of the 

 pursuit a Rabbit happened to cross the Stoat's line of flight. In an 

 instant it turned aside, sprang on the Rabbit, killed it with one blow, 

 and, leaving it dead, continued its flight, and ultimately effected 

 its escape. Polecats, when they were abundant, attacked hen- 

 houses, and slew the inmates wholesale, turning the place into 

 a shambles ; but it was during the night they committed their 

 burglaries, whereas the Stoat will attack and kill poultry in broad 

 daylight. Again and again I have heard the cry, in recent years, 

 that a Stoat, or a couple of them, were about the poultry-yard. Run- 

 ning for a gun, I have found the little brutes had run into a loose wall, 

 having perhaps been driven ofli" a chicken they had just killed. Then 

 their curiosity proved their ruin. Ever and anon they would peep 

 out at you from their fancied security in the wall, and stare impu- 

 dently at you with their sharp cunning eyes. Poor fellows ! they do 

 not understand breech-loaders and the swiftness of shot. This curi- 

 osity, which is a characteristic of the Stoat, often leads them into a 

 trap. If a little house is built of half-a-dozen bricks, and an opening 

 left in it, a Stoat, if he sees it, is almost sure to pop in, like Paul 

 Pry, to see what is inside, and he finds there an iron trap. There is 

 no better bait for a Stoat than the body of one of his dead brethren. 

 I had hoped he went to visit his departed relative from motives of 

 family affection, but I have been told by eyewitnesses that his love 

 is for the flesh of the deceased — and thus to his other amiable quali- 

 ties he adds that of cannibalism. 



I read the other day, in the ' Field,' an anecdote of a Stoat. A 



