THE STOAT AND THE SHRIKE 



weasel carrying off a heavy burthen to her young. 

 She does not drag the field mouse or vole, but leaps 

 along with it, making by this method fairly quick 

 progress through even high, thick grass. Whilst 

 carrying her booty, she does not relax her vigilance ; 

 threatened by a human being, she will instantly drop 

 the prey, which is carried by the loose skin of the 

 back, or back of the neck, and dart to cover. The 

 stoat makes progress in the same way, and whilst 

 foraging is as subject to the mob of small birds 

 as hawk or cuckoo. The butcher bird is quick to 

 recognize and clamour at the stoat. Shrikes have 

 their families about them in the bushes now, and 

 in some places are among the most common wayside 

 birds. In a grassy pit I came upon a family party 

 of shrikes scolding a stoat busy for her young. 

 Several times the parent birds flew down towards 

 the stoat as it made its furtive journeys to and fro. 

 They appeared ready to strike it, but did not actually 

 do so. 



The whole family chattered while the stoat was in 

 sight, rearing itself up and leaping through the thick 

 grass, lithe and leery, all eye, nose, and ear to the 

 least hint of danger ; but, like the cuckoo, unembar- 

 rassed by the angry attention of the small birds. 

 How does the shrike recognize the dangerous 

 character of the stoat ? How discriminate between 

 a stoat and a rabbit or hare ? It is easy to assert 

 that the shrike knows through hereditary instinct, 

 but this takes us no further. There is no evidence 

 that in the far past shrikes suffered appreciably from 



179 



