THE STOAT. 13 



quite as active. It is especially fond of rabbits, and hence 

 keeps to the thickets and other places where these animals 

 abound. You can tell it at once by the black-tipped tail. 

 In summer its colour is reddish-brown, with white belly 

 and throat ; in winter brown and white, and often quite 

 white it then becomes the ermine of commerce. When 

 hunting rabbits it appears as if it fascinated them after a 

 short time, for the rabbit will suddenly stop and utter a 

 most piteous cry, and if nothing intervenes the victim is 

 soon silenced. We have often seen this, and rescued many 

 a rabbit ; but it is most difficult, almost impossible, except 

 by death, to drive the stoat from its victim. Although 

 frightened at first by your presence, it will return again 

 and again to take up the scent. The stoat is a most 



THE STOAT. 



courageous little beast, and will defend its young against 

 all odds. We once came across a male and female with 

 four young ones migrating from one part of Richmond 

 Park to another. On approaching them, both the old ones 

 set up a defiant chatter and rushed towards us, discon- 

 tinuing their attacks only with death. 



Very few stoats in their white winter dress are seen in 

 our southern counties, but in the alpine districts of Wales 

 and Scotland and Northumberland it is very common to 

 find them ; indeed in Scotland and Wales the change of 

 colour is almost universal. The skins obtained in this 

 country are very inferior, both in beauty and value, to 

 those from Russia, Norway, and Lapland. 



Bell (" British Quadrupeds," second edition) says the 

 definition of the word stoat is very probably from the Belgic 



