54 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



inches and the tail 2 J inches. This httle animal is 

 common in England and Scotland but unknown in 

 Ireland. It is a most useful friend to the farmer, 

 since it slays rats, mice, voles and moles in countless 

 numbers, pursuing them underground, but the farmer 

 must guard his birds and hen-roosts from its on- 



FiG. 16. 



-The Weasel {Pidorius nivalis). 

 by H. C. Wood.) 



(Photo, from life 



slaughts, and it is quite worth his while to do this 

 and let the weasel vent his ferocity on the moles and 

 voles, for the reports of the Committee appointed by 

 the Board of Agriculture to inquire into the plag'ue 

 of field voles in Scotland, in 1892, give a number of 

 statements by witnesses, all tending to prove the 

 weasel to be par excellence the destroyer of field mice. 

 Like the stoat, the weasel fascinates its victims 



