The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 121 
Having repeated these manceuvres for some time, it at last 
made a bold dash at the vole, and would have carried it off 
but for my interference. Occasionally, however, one sees 
manifestations of its cruelty that make us think of revenge. 
In June 1890, while sauntering along a secluded path in 
Gosford woods, I noticed a thrush’s nest in a bush about five 
feet from the ground, and being curious to see what it con- 
tained, I proceeded to pull the branch on which the nest rested 
towards me, when out sprang a Weasel. In the nest were 
the mangled remains of several young mavises not more than 
five or six days old, on which it had feasted. Nevertheless, 
I would be extremely sorry to see so interesting a member 
of our fere nature wiped out of our fauna. To the farmer 
it is an undoubted friend, and he should certainly be the last 
to lift a hand against it. 
In 1888 Mr T. Speedy obtained from this and other parts 
of Scotland several hundred Weasels and Stoats for trans- 
portation alive to New Zealand, where they have been turned 
down in the hope that they may provide a natural remedy 
for the Rabbit plague in that country. 
MUSTELA ERMINEA J. STOAT OR ERMINE. 
In spite of persistent persecution, the Stoat is still by no 
means rare, though not so numerous as the Weasel. It is 
of course more confined to the hilly districts than that 
species, but I have met with it in the low country as well 
as on the hills, and in the plantations as well as in the 
open. When ferreting Rabbits on the wooded banks of the 
Esk above Penicuik, I have several times seen a Stoat bolt 
before the Ferret; and in the spring of 1888, while resting 
by the side of a fir plantation at Loganlee in the Pentlands, 
where numbers are trapped every season, I watched one climb- 
ing the trees and jumping from bough to bough almost as 
nimbly as a Squirrel. When pursued it leapt to the ground 
from a height of nearly ten feet, preferring evidently to make 
its escape on ¢erra firma. The speed at which a Stoat can 
move along on the ground is astonishing. 
During the winter months numbers are received by the 
