POLECATS, STOATS, AND WEASELS 345 



and chickens. Should you trap him in a mole-run (as is 

 often done), you will find he measures eighteen inches in 

 length, and is about the size of an ordinary polecat ferret, 

 the female being a little smaller. In winter, of course, he 

 is often white, with a black tip to his tail — hence his name 

 of " minifa." Whether they pair or not I cannot tell, but 

 I am inclined to think not. The nest is often made, as I 

 have said, in a captured mole -heap, as also in a drj' hedge- 

 row or river-wall, or old mossy bank, or in a hollow tree; 

 and the animal, like the weasel, betrays its presence by 

 leaving a pile of dung at its front door — a clean practice, 

 but an unwise one. They will nest, too, in a heap of old 

 rushes, that has been "laying" for some time. In April 

 they young in their nests, composed of mixed feathers, 

 mouse-fur, and grass, and the old animals find plenty of 

 mice, rats, rabbits, and leverets at this season to feed upon, 

 not to mention eggs and young birds. 



Their prey is hunted purely by scent. Sometimes they 

 hunt in couples, at other times in packs. One old fenman 

 tells me he once met a troop of the " warmin " going along 

 like a pack of hounds. Once I came across one hunting a 

 rabbit in a planting by the water-side. The rabbit came 

 madly across a plank laid across a nine-foot dike, and the 

 stoat, with ears pricked, with nose set out, tail rigid as a bar, 

 and coat all standing, on his trail. About half across the 

 plank the stoat made a leap and alighted on the rabbit's 

 back, the frightened creature rushing across with his dread 

 foe on his back ; but the keeper's dog frightened oft' the stoat 

 and secured the dying rabbit, for it had received its fatal 

 wound. But the stoat left his disgusting smell in revenge, 

 as they always do when "stowed up." His fights with rats 

 I shall elsewhere describe. He is just as great an egg- 

 stealer as the rat too, rolling them along in the same way to 

 his hole in the river-wall. When he starts on a hunt, he begins 

 like a hound, but with nose closer to the ground, snuffing the 

 trail ; and should he lose it, he will fly round and snuft' about. 



