STOAT OR EUM.m¥j.—Mustela Erminea, 



The well-known Stoat of the British Isles is sufficiently familiar to us under 

 its ordinary designation, and is celebrated throughout the world under its title 

 of Ermine. In the extreme northern parts of Europe, and sometimes even in 

 England, the fur of the Stoat becomes of a snowy whiteness during the winter 

 months with the exception of the tail, which retains its jetty black tip, and t'/) 

 abdomen, which assumes a warm, creamy hue. 



The Stoat is considerably larger than the Weasel, measuring rather mora than 

 fourteen inches in total length, of which the tail occupies rather more than four 

 inches. There is, however, considerable difference in the size of various in- 

 dividuals. 



It is a most determined hunter, pursuing its game with such pertinacious skill 

 that it very seldom permits its intended prey to escape. 



Although tolerably swift of foot, it is enth-ely unable to cope with the great 

 speed of the hare, an animal which frequently falls a victim to the Stoat. Yet 

 it is enabled, by its great delicacy of scent and the singular endurance of its 

 frame, to run down any hare on whose track it may have set itself, in spite of 

 the long legs and wonderful speed of its prey. When pursued by a Stoat, the 

 hare does not seem to put forward its strength as it does when it is followed by 

 dogs, but as soon as it discovers the nature of its pursuer, seems to lose aU 

 energy, and hops lazily along as if its faculties were benumbed by some powerful 

 agency. 



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