P.EAKS 53 



antics. It had got within ten yards of its unconscious 

 victims when two old thrushes came flying from the 

 wood shrieking with all their mighty first above the 

 stoat and then over the threatened offspring. The 

 young birds at last took the hint and flew one after 

 another into the wood^ whither the disappointed 

 diner promptly followed them.^^ 



Stoats and their relatives often make a store of 

 their surplus victims. Such larders have been found 

 in a hole in a tree stump stored with carcases of 

 rabbits, rats, mice, birds and birds' eggs. In order 

 to preserve the egg intact the stoat moves it by 

 rolling it along^ holding it steady with his chin and 

 pushing with his feet. 



A correspondent of Mr. Millais records having 

 seen a stoat move a hen's egg and roll it down a 

 bank in this way. Mr. de Winton, writing in Lyd- 

 dekkers 'British Mammals/ says, '^ I took forty-two 

 pheasant's eggs from one hole in May, 1894, and 

 have srot the skin of the old 'Hob' who amassed 

 this larder." 



Like the lemmings of Scandinavia and many other 

 animals, stoats will occasionally migrate in packs, 

 and are then said to be dangerous, and to attack a 

 man who crosses their path. 



The weasel is a much smaller animal than the 

 stoat, and, though resembling it in general form, the 

 weasel has a much shorter tail, which lacks the black 

 tip. The fur is a tawny brown above, not so red as 

 the stoat, and the under parts are pure white, the 

 white extending to the upper lips. 



The head and body together measure about 8 



