368 THE STOAT. 
the hare, an animal which frequently falls a victiin 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 streneth as it 
does when it is followed by dogs, but as soon as it discovers the nature of its pursuer, 
seems to lose all energy, and hops lazily along as if its faculties were benumbed by some 
powerful agency. This strange lassitude, in ‘whatever manner it may be produced, is of 
great service to the Stoat, in enabling it to secure an animal which might in a very few 
minutes place itself beyond the reach of danger, by running in a straight line. 
In this curious phenomenon, there are one or two points worthy of notice. 
Although the Stoat is physically less powerful than the hare, it yet is endowed with, 
and is conscious of, a moral superiority, which will at length attain its aim. The hare, on 
the other hand, is sensible of its weakness, and its instincts of conservation are much weaker 
than the destructive instinct of its pursuer. It must be conscious of its inferiority, or it 
would not run, but boldly face its enemy, for the hare is a fierce and determined fighter 
when it is matched against animals that are possessed of twenty times the muscular 
powers of the Stoat. But as soon as it has caught a glimpse of the fiery eyes of its 
Pe its faculties fail, and its senses become oppressed with that strange lethargy 
which is felt by many creatures when they meet the fixed gaze of the serpent’s eye. 
A gentleman who once met with a dangerous adventure with a cobra, told me that the 
creature moved its head cently from side to side in front of his face, and that a strange and 
soothing influence began to creep over his senses, depriving him of the power of motion, 
but at the same time removing all sense of fear. So the hare seems to be influenced 
by a similar feeling, and to be enticed as it were to its fate, the senses of fear and 
pain benuimbed, and the mere animal faculties surviving to be destroyed by the single 
bite. 
I have no doubt but that this phenomenon is nearly connected with the curious 
benumbing of the nerves, and the deprivation of fear which is recorded by Livingstone in 
his well-known account of his adventure with a lion, which is mentioned on page 149 of 
this work. The preservative faculties of the hare are excited by the loud noisy dogs that 
make so violent an attack upon the hare, and which consequently makes use of all her 
muscular and intellectual powers to escape from them. But the silent, soft-footed, gliding 
Stoat steals quietly on its victim without alarming it by violent demonstrations, soothes it 
to its death and kills it daintily. 
Be it noticed that there are human types of the Stoat, or rather that the visible animal 
is but an outward emblem of the inward nature. 
If in the course of the chase, the hunted animal should cross a stream, the Stoat will 
do the same, although, when it is engaged in the pursuit of water-voles, it seldom 
ventures to follow them into an element where they are more at their ease than their 
pursuer. Still, although it may not choose to match itself against so accomplished a 
swimmer and diver as the water-vole, it is no mean proficient in the natatory art. 
Mr. Thompson relates a curious instance of the prowess which is displayed by the 
Stoat in crossing a tolerably wide expanse of water. “A respectable farmer, when 
crossing in his boat over an arm of the sea, about one mile in breadth, which separates 
a portion of Islandinagee (a peninsula near Larne, county Antrim,) from the mainland, 
observed a ripple proceeding from some animal in the water, and on rowing up, found 
that it was a ‘weasel’—Stoats are called weasels in Iveland—which he had no doubt 
was swimming for Islandmagee, as he had seen it going in a direct line from the shore, 
and it had reached the distance by a quarter of a mile when taken. The poor animal 
was cruelly killed, although its gallant swimming might have pleaded in favour of 
its life.” 
As to the food of the Stoat, the animal seems to be very easily contented in this 
respect, killing and eating almost any description of wild quadrupeds, birds and reptiles. 
Of rabbits it is very fond, and kills great numbers of them, especially when they are 
young. 
A curious scene between a Stoat and rabbit was once witnessed in Epping Forest. A 
