BEAES 5o 



by rolling and tumbling and performing other un- 

 usual antics before them. The late Mr. E. T. Booth* 

 recorded in the ^ Field ^ an incident which he 

 witnessed while driving between Shoreham and 

 Lancing. Four wheatears, a whitethroat and a robin 

 were enthralled by a weasel which was running back- 

 wards and forwards across the road followed closely 

 by a whitethroat, which fluttered with quivering 

 wings from six inches to a foot above the weaseFs 

 head. The robin sat in the hedge and looked on 

 while the wheatears stood motionless in the road, 

 simply turning their heads to watch the motions of 

 the weasel, who merely ran backwards and forwards 

 across the road. 



The food of the weasel consists of small birds, 

 mice, voles and young rats and rabbits, and small 

 birds' eggs. Cats and dogs will kill weasels, but 

 the little animal will often turn on them. 



Mr. Douglas English has made some very inter- 

 esting photographic studies of weasels taken from 

 the members of a litter of five weasel kittens found 

 in a haystack. They were, he says, very attractive 

 and easily handled pets. 



Weasels hunt in packs at night, and are the ^^ fairy 

 hounds" or "dandy dogs" of the folk tales which 

 hunt the hares in the moonlight. In the west of 

 England a weasel is called a "vairy" and its skin is 

 considered lucky. Dr. Primrose in the 'Vicar of 

 Wakefield' says, "My wife was usually fond of a 

 weasel skin purse as being most lucky, but this by 

 the bye." 



* ' Field/ October 6th, 1883. 



