Flesh-Eating Land Mammals 



with only the tip of the tail marked in black. The 

 fur known in the commercial market as ermine is the 

 winter coating of the Stoat. 



It is a larger animal than the weasel, and a very 

 much more daring one when at close quarters. It is 

 an extremely bold raider, and when on the trail is a 

 most determined assailant, be its victim bird or rodent. 

 The larder of the Stoat means anything in fur or 

 feather it can capture. The Stoat will dine on a 

 grouse chick, or carry off a pheasant poult, with the 

 same assurance that it will enter a rabbit-burrow and 

 throttle the dam while she suckles her sightless off- 

 spring. Pressed by weather conditions, the Stoat will 

 not hesitate to kill a mouse or rat, a hare, or a stray- 

 ing duck. I have known a Stoat to visit a hen-crib 

 during successive nights, and destroy not only a great 

 number of chickens, but also take possession of the nest- 

 box, where the raider was ultimately found — fast asleep 

 — in the early morning. 



Although Stoats, as Nature has decreed, are robust 

 hunters, yet they are feeble creatures when pitted 

 against man. For instance, a smart rap on the head 

 will "lay out" an adult Stoat. They are easily shot 

 when found hunting ; and were it not for the contour 

 of the creature, its death would be encompassed far 

 more readily than it is at the present time. Like the 

 weasel, very little cover is required to shield the form 

 of a Stoat. It passes through the herbage practically 

 unseen, the grasses being scarcely disturbed by its 



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