FLESH-EATING MAMMALS 



21 



all of which help to secure inconspicuousness. Chapman, in Wild 

 Norway, writes: ". . . One may easily spend years in the haunts 

 of the Glutton without obtaining (in summer) so much as one 

 glimpse of the beast; for he is strictly nocturnal and of secretive 

 habit, lying up all day in the wildest and most rugged corries and 

 rocky glens. I have never myself met with the least evidence 

 of his existence, though hunting forests where we knew him to be." 



BADGER, WEASEL, AND OTTER FAMILY 



The most typical members of the present family are the 

 Weasels, Stoats, Sables, Polecats, and their allies. The Common 

 Weasel (Mustela vulgaris) is an abundant British mammal, the 



Fig. 315. Stoats (Mttstela erminea] in summer dress 



extreme alertness of which has become proverbial. It relentlessly 

 pursues all manner of small animals, which vainly seek shelter 

 in narrow crannies or convenient crevices, for their enemy's long 

 neck and narrow sinuous body, with short limbs (see vol. i, p. 97), 

 enable him to follow almost anywhere, while the quarry is rarely 

 his match in point of speed. Added to this, the Weasel is a 

 good climber, so that brooding birds, nestlings, and eggs form an 

 important item in his bill of fare. A number of these animals 

 often hunt together, co-operating with much intelligence for a 



