RATS 357 



One of the best matched duels is that between a stoat 

 and a rat. Let us watch such an one. The rat bounds 

 clumsily away across the clods, his tail straight out, and 

 his jolty run availing him nothing, for the stoat quickly 

 gains upon him, when the rat stops and jumps on his 

 hind-legs, his head raised, his ears a bit back, and show- 

 ing a little ivory, but he never seems certain of success 

 — the stoat, with erect tail, and ears and hair shot out, 

 approaches him slowly, turning his head now this way, 

 now that, and suddenly darts upon him, seizing him by 

 the back of the neck. Sometimes the rat squeaks and is 

 dead at once, and the stoat shakes him, puts him down, but 

 never drops him, and holds him between his teeth, apparently 

 sucking his blood for some minutes, when he will suddenly 

 look round and gallop off to the hedge with his prey, to hide 

 it. At other times the battle is longer, and the combatants 

 go rolling over and over, scufQing and squealing even for a 

 quarter of an hour, until, with a shriek, the rat gives up, for 

 the stoat always masters him in the open. Sometimes the 

 rat is driven to the water (in a dike), for he will never take 

 to it unless forced, for the stoat is his master there too. 

 Should he, however, be forced to a dike, he will boldly 

 plunge in and swim under water some twenty or thirty yards, 

 coming up cautiously with his nose just above the water; 

 but the stoat is after him with his otter-like strokes, and the 

 rat swims off again, for he will never fight in the water, and 

 the stoat is soon up with him, and all is over. Should a rat 

 be " stowed up " in a pit, and he sees no chance of escape, 

 he will sooner let himself drown than come ashore to be 

 killed. And well he may; for some of these mongrel 

 ratting dogs are wonderful. I know of one who will kill a 

 rat one minute and retrieve a delicate bird the next, without 

 disturbing a feather ; so clever are some of these ratters at 

 training their dogs, and so clever are the beasts. In sum- 

 mer, of course, little ratting is done, and the ordinary ratting 

 practices are too well known to repeat. But on the Marsh- 



