PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



Stoats, Weasels and Pole-cats 



The Stoat, Weasel, Pole-cat, Hedgehog and Rat are all 

 very fond of eggs, and precisely the same remark applies 

 to mice, and when the weather is dry, all these animals 

 are very keen in searching for Pheasant and partridge 

 eggs. The stoat, the weasel and the pole-cat belong to 

 the same family — Mustelidae — as the ferret, and their habits 

 closely resemble this useful little animal. 



The gamekeeper wages war on the Stoat and the 

 Weasel all the year round, and his vermin poles usually 

 display a goodly number of these destructive pests. They 

 are equally fond of young birds and their eggs, and not 

 uncommonly kill adult Pheasants, their point of attack 

 being the neck. Their depredations are not confined to 

 game birds by any means, any form of flesh being pala- 

 table to their stomach provided it is in fresh condition. 



The hedges and the coverts are both favoured haunts 

 of the Stoat. The Stoat is nomadical, in other words 

 constantly on the move, and will travel along the banks 

 of a brook, and as these little pests have a fancy for 

 crossing a stream from one side to another, advantage 

 can be taken of this by placing a tree or log of wood to 

 form a bridge, with a trap in the middle of it, only the 

 trap must not be exposed on the pole, otherwise the Stoat 

 will jump over it. 



A trapper, writing on the habits of the Stoat in the Game- 

 keeper for September 1901, has the following remarks con- 

 cerning this wily little animal : — 



" If a gamekeeper wishes to insure the capture of every 

 Stoat passing along a stream, he should dig at right angles 

 to that stream a ditch about 4 feet wide, extending a 



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