120 WEASEL HUNTING A RAT. 



eagerness overshot the spot where the rat had gone into 

 the bank : it was only for a moment, he came hack, quar- 

 tered the ground, found the trail, and was in the bank in 

 no time. A blackthorn overhung the path; we saw some- 

 thing move in it ; it was the rat ; the weasel was going 

 up the stem ; he was close after him ; he evidently view- 

 ed him ; he gained on him ; the rat dropped himself into 

 the foot-path, the weasel did the same, and followed him 

 up the bank within a foot *. we heard a shrill cry, first 

 long, then short, shorter, then all was still ; we went qui- 

 etly to the place ; the weasel left his prey, hissing at us 

 like an angry cat ; the brain of the rat was laid completely 

 bare, but his little heart continued beating for nearly a 

 minute as I held him in my hand. 



A THRUSH was shouting out his sonorous vespers or the 

 requiem of the rat from the topmost twig of an old elm 

 tree, black, drear, leafless, budless, and offering no token 

 of the spring which the sweet bird on its summit seemed 

 so blithely to herald ; but it was St. Valentine's day, and 

 he was inspired by love. 



When I got home I sat down and made these notes for 

 you, and as they do not fill my paper, I will add one or 

 two mems about the weasel, which have for a long time 

 been standing by to be let go. The weasel is a very 

 awkward-looking animal when running on level ground ; 

 his great length and slenderness of body, and the shortness 

 of his legs, are very much against speed ; but in climbing 

 trees, or threading the long and narrow galleries of field- 

 mice, this seeming disproportion is of the greatest use to 

 him. I have seen him coursing along the boughs of a 

 tree, winding himself round, above or below, just as suited 

 his purpose, with all the ease and agility of a squirrel. I 



