The Stoat and its ways. 25 
known to leave food there. Plenty of proof exists that the male 
will destroy or maim the young at times. ‘Tailless and injured 
stoats have been recorded, and from the peculiar character of 
their losses, the work of the male may be suspected. \ photo- 
graph published in “ The Gamekeeper,” for May, 1g05, showed a 
stoat destitute of both forelimbs, taken off close to the body, not 
in the least like the way a trap could injure one. ‘This seems to 
be a case in point. On the other hand, the female stoat is a 
devoted mother and passionately attached to her young; she will 
run any risk for them, even attacking man single-handed. 
Stoats have a most marvellous power of scent. No breed of 
dogs known to me can approach them in the possession of that 
faculty: it is as highly developed as in the wild pig. hey run 
directly along ‘‘a warm track” and cross and recross a cold one, 
but are rarely, if ever, ‘ thrown out” in following up their game. 
When from five to a dozen young are following their mother, 
the amount of destruction such a party causes is simply incredible. 
Carrion crows, sparrow hawks, magpies, and foxes can hardly 
be called good friends of the game-owner, but’ the largest 
family any of them rear is not in it with the stoat’s brood.* 
*1 myself have known a pair of carrion crows to carry off forty 
chickers in three days from a fowl farm. One of the pair was shot, and 
left where it fell. Its mate only flew over the pasture onee again: it 
took the position in at a glance, and shunned the spot for the future, 
