18^87-88.] Stoats and ]Veasels. lyi 



with excitement, when I was interested to discover a brood 

 of partridges run screaming from the side of the old stone 

 fence right across the field and over a knoll. This movement 

 on the part of the partridges appeared to disappoint and sur- 

 prise the stoat, who halted as if in a difficulty as to his future 

 action. By this time I had got fairly within shot, as in his 

 anxiety to get among liis prey he was oblivious of my having 

 been in pursuit. I fired, and no sooner had I done so than 

 I felt I had made a mistake, as I should have liked to have 

 seen how he would have met the unexpected contingency. As 

 it was, on going forward I found him to be a very old stoat, 

 who had doubtless done much mischief in his day : he was 

 certainly the largest of the species I have ever seen. 



Though, as I have already remarked, stoats and weasels re- 

 semble each other in many respects, there is a difference between 

 them. I refer to the stoat changing his colour from dark 

 brown in summer to pure white in winter, with the exception 

 of the black tip on the tail, which never changes. We discover 

 here how wisely nature makes provision for enabling some 

 animals to capture their prey, and for others, such as the 

 mountain hare, to elude their enemies. Why the weasel 

 should form an exception to this law, so strikingly illustrated 

 in the stoat, is a point which I confess myself unable satis- 

 factorily to explain. In changing from their summer to their 

 winter coats, or vice versd, stoats do not become white or brown 

 all at once, but break out in white or brown patches or stripes, 

 and at times have a piebald appearance. It seems strange 

 that the stoat and weasel resemble each other in almost every 

 other respect, and yet the latter retains its brown colour in 

 winter as well as in summer. Mr Scot Skirving, in his ex- 

 cellent paper, contributed a few years ago to the Society, on 

 " The Stoat or Ermine Weasel " (' Transactions,' vol. i. p. 130), 

 states that he should like to try the experiment of subjectin"' 

 a weasel to a cold of 30° below zero in order to see if it would 

 turn white. My opinion is that it would not. " Can the 

 Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? " No 

 device of man can change the colour of any animal, unless 

 nature has willed it so. Weasels are not nearly so hardy as 

 stoats, and I venture to affirm that if subjected to a tempera- 

 ture of 30' below zero, they would succumb in a few hours. 



